


Into the Fog - Story Arc One: Setting Things into Motion

by Knowledgeseeker66



Series: Into The Fog [1]
Category: Persona 3, Persona 4, Persona Series
Genre: Childhood Encounter, Childhood Memories, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, F/F, Female Protagonist, Genderbent Protagonist, Masks, Vigilantism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-26
Updated: 2017-06-28
Packaged: 2018-04-01 09:37:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 51,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4014796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Knowledgeseeker66/pseuds/Knowledgeseeker66
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Life has never been normal for Narukami Rei.  Even as a child, she has always been an outcast.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Fated Childhoods

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you very much for checking out this story. ‘Into the Fog’ will be an alternate take of Persona 4 with a female protagonist rather than a male one. Some of you might recognize the title of this story. This was originally the title of EnchantedSlytherin’s work. For those of you who may have been fans of the original story, I regret to inform you that she has decided to take her leave from writing for various reasons. However, EnchantedSlytherin has given me permission to reboot this story and go in my own directions
> 
> I’m personally very excited to be working on this story. I’ve enjoyed playing Persona 4, and writing a female version of the protagonist seemed like an interesting idea since Persona 3 had given the option to choose a male or female protagonist which did cause a few notable changes. This story will utilize a mixture of the video game, anime adaptations, and original ideas. I plan on utilizing that along with a number of things EnchantedSlytherin and I discussed to create this story. If you read EnchantedSlytherin’s original story, you can expect a few things to be similar, be altered, or expanded upon between this reboot and her original story as well.
> 
> Similar to EnchantedSlytherin’s story, I plan on this being a Yuri story. This will be my first attempt at writing a story for this genre. Of course, there will be multiple other genres in this story since this is a fanfiction story set in the Persona 4 universe. Additionally, I do not plan on having the Yuri being something tacked on. It will be something that I plan on going into quite a bit of depth, but that will not happen until much later.
> 
> Unlike the English version of the game or the original story, I plan on using the Japanese order of naming, so it will be family name first followed by the personal name. For example, instead of Rise Kujikawa, it will be Kujikawa Rise. Additionally, similar to the anime, some of the characters will refer to each other by their family names at first since in Japanese society, people do not call each other by their personal names unless they are good friend, family member, or their senior.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you will enjoy reading the pilot chapter of this story and will leave a review. I would greatly appreciate written feedback.

Into The Fog  
Story Arc One: Setting Things into Motion – Part One  
Chapter One: Fated Childhoods

///

People all have pasts

Everyone has a childhood

For better or worse

 

///

Date: Fall 2002  
Location: Tokyo – Elementary School

It was a quiet day. Days like this are generally characterized as ‘peaceful’ days of tranquility. However, these days were the types of days that no one would ever believe something ‘unusual’ would happen. On days like this, everyone would be expecting to operate on the current status quo and go about their daily lives. Most people would be comfortable with how their current lives are and would not try to change anything for better or worse. At least this was true for the students of this Japanese Elementary School.

In this Elementary School, the students would all go about their usual routines of attending class, hanging out with their friends, going to an afterschool activity, and heading home. A majority of the students were happy living like that because that routine and the status quo is what worked for them. Unfortunately for some students, the so called ‘usual routine’ did not work for them because the ‘status quo’ was to their disadvantage. The ‘status quo’ was not all inclusive meaning some students would be left to the wayside while others had all the attention.

One victim of being excluded by the status quo was a student named, Narukami Rei. She was a little girl who other students in her class generally avoided because of her unique feature. Rei was blessed and cursed with natural silver, gray hair since she was born. In Japan it was normal to see people with darker hair. It was not too unusual to see students with different hair colors either due to having a foreign parent or dyeing their hair. However, it was rare for someone to have naturally silver gray hair because it was a genetic improbability, especially with parents who both had dark hair. As a result of her abnormal hair, Rei was alienated by her peers. One of the names they gave her was, the ‘Silver Haired Freak.’ It was a name that would forever stick inside Rei’s head.

In the scheme of things, it was a rather petty excuse to exclude someone from the group. Unfortunately, despite whether it was a petty excuse or nor, it was not unusual to make someone an outsider, even if she was a child. As a result, Rei was not successful at making any friends during the first eight years of her life. Her parents were not exactly helpful at helping her cope with this problem either.

Due to how she was treated because of her hair color, she had tried dyeing it even though she was only eight years old. Despite it working at first, it immediately changed back to being silver as if some kind of strange power did not want her hair color to be altered. She was amazed when she witnessed it happened. After dyeing her hair, it was back to being silver within a few hours as if it was magic. Since it appeared that dyeing her hair was not an answer, Rei always tried keeping her hair short, so she could hide it underneath a hat whenever she was not attending classes.

During the lunch break, Rei quietly watched all of her other classmates eating lunch together in groups. Only a handful of other students like herself were eating alone. In the past, she even tried eating with them, and even they rejected her. It was ironic that others who were rejected decided to reject her but that’s what happened. As a result, she did not even bother anymore, and she just ate her lunch alone by the window.

As she watched other groups of kids happily eating their lunches together, she could not help but enviously stare at them. She thought, “Why can’t they ever let me eat them with them? What’s so special about them?” On reflex, Rei pulled on a piece of her hair and stared at the silver, gray hair she had in front of her eyes. While she pulled on her hair, Rei quietly thought to herself, “Is my hair really that big of a deal? It’s not like I haven’t tried changing the color of my hair. It always stays silver no matter what I do.”

After Rei thought this, she heard the group of kids were laughing about something. It made Rei even more envious to be part of that group, so she could know what was so funny. Rei then averted her eyes and looked towards outside the window. She was not sure if she would start crying or not, but she knew that she did not want others to see her face. She sadly thought, “Things are normal for everyone else. Why can’t they be normal for me too? I wish things could be normal for me, so I can be like them.”

///

Date: Fall 2002  
Location: Tokyo – Elementary School

While Rei was mulling over her exclusion and rejection by her classmates, there was another girl who was having similar problems. This girl was about a year younger than Rei. Her name was Kujikawa Rise and while she was not being excluded from others because of her hair color, she was another student who understood what it felt like to have difficulty making friends. Unlike Rei, rather than being excluded, Rise was considered an easy target for bullies. When she was bullied, no one would stand up for her. They did not want to take the chance of becoming the bullies’ next target, so they left her alone.

Similar to Rei, Rise was eating her lunch alone. As she was eating, she overheard some of her classmates talking. One of them said, “Have you heard about the ‘silver haired freak’?” The voice indicated the student was attempting to whisper this, but failed because anyone within ten feet of him could hear.

One of the other students asked in a curious tone, “What’s that?”

The student who was attempting to whisper said, “It’s not a ‘what’ it’s a ‘girl.’ The ‘silver haired freak’ is a girl in our school and she has ‘silver hair.’”

Another student in the group said in a skeptical tone, “Are you kidding? I’ve never heard of anyone like that.

The fourth member of the group said, “I think I saw someone like that last week.”

“You have?” The skeptical student questioned. “I haven’t seen anyone in our class who has hair like that.”

The student who brought the rumor to their attention in the first place clarified, “From what I’ve heard, she’s supposed to be our senpai, so she is one floor above us. She’s probably eating lunch right now too.”

One of the students asked, “Do you know what this ‘silver haired freak’ is like?”

“I don’t know much. All I know is that she is older than us, has silver hair, and she had no friends. From what I hear, she ‘scares’ them away.” It would have been more accurate if the rumor stated other students scare her away.

As Rise was listening, she could not help but think, “It sounds like I’m not the only one who is having trouble making friends in this school.” Rise could not help but feel curious, “I wonder what she is really like.”

///

Date: Fall 2002 – After School  
Location: Tokyo – Elementary School

Due to her parents’ busy work schedules, they would never be home by the time that Rei would finish school. As a result, Rei would stay afterschool to participate in the karate club they had. Since it was a karate club for Elementary School students, it was not intense, but they did teach a few moves. Additionally, it was a great place for Rei to relieve some of her pent up stress and rage. When they would have karate matches, it would be bad news if anyone ended up being her opponent. She would end up knocking them down on their back. She was extremely pleased by her victories in today’s class, but her happiness was dampened after the class was over.

Rei frowned as she stared around the schoolyard. She was sitting on the stone wall, and she was absentmindedly tapping her foot against it. The wind nearly blew off her hat, so she quickly grabbed it to prevent it from flying away. She tucked any hair that came loose under her hat or behind her ear. The last thing she wanted was for more people besides her classmates to see her silver, gray hair.

As Rei sat on the stone wall, she was frowning at the sight of watching parents come and go for their children. She continued to see the students being picked up by their parents one by one. They would always be so happy to see their child. She would hear them ask their child how his or her day was, and then she would hear the parents tell their child how proud they are that things went well for them. After observing this for a while, she glanced at her watch to see that her parents were over a half hour late and counting. Rei would not feel as sad about this turn of events if this was not an everyday occurrence.

As she witnessed all the other children being picked up by their parents Rei sadly thought to herself, “I wish mom and dad would stop being so late to pick me up all the time. All the other kids parents come and pick them up, and they go do cool things after, like get ice cream or go out to the park. Why are they always so busy at work all the time? Why can’t they do those things with me? Even when they’re home they never have time for me either. They always tell me, ‘It's work this’ and ‘Friends that.’ I'm always told I'm too much of little girl to understand anything. They always ignore me. They always avoid me.”

Rei was taken out of her world of self-pity when she heard a young boy ask in a mocking voice, “Hey clumsy, why are you crying?” Rei quickly looked towards the source of the voice and she could see that three older boys were standing over a young girl with red hair who wore her hair in pigtails.

The little girl was on knees sniffling and rubbing her eyes while three older boys who were in Rei’s class were standing over the young girl. They were holding her ‘Hello Kitty Backpack’ above her head with a triumphant look in their eyes. From how they looked, you would assume they achieved something of importance. However, the only thing these three cowardly bullies achieved was picking on a little girl until they made her cry.

Witnessing this injustice caused a fire to flare up within Rei. She jumped off the stone wall and began quickly walking over to the incident. She clenched her hands and angrily shouted, “Hey stupid, leave her alone!”

That caught the boys’ attention. They all turned towards Rei and glared at her. All three of them had typical delinquent looks. The tallest one appeared to be the leader, and he was the one holding the backpack. Even though he was between eight to ten years old, he had his brown hair shaved into a Mohawk and his school uniform was wrinkled and there were dirt stains on his knees. The other two had cut hair, and their school uniforms were unkempt too.

All three of them seemed to recognize Rei instantly. The leader of the group, who went by the name of Kenta said, “Hey guys look! It’s the ‘Silver Haired Freak’!” The other two laughed at Rei’s expense as the leader looked at his ‘subordinates’ and said, “She actually has the nerve to tell us to stop doing something.” Hearing that caused Rei to become even more irritated.

Kenta then looked towards Rei again and told her, “You want to stop us from having fun.” He asked her in a mocking voice, “Well what are you going to do about it?” The three of them laughed with amusement as he continued to say, “You can’t do anything. You’re just a girl. Everyone knows girls are weaker than boys.”

As he was boasting about men’s superiority over women, the leader then took his eyes off Rei and said to his ‘subordinates,’ “That’s what dad always tells my mom and I, and my dad’s always right. Wouldn’t you say …?” The leader never got to finish his sentence.

Since all three of them made the mistake to take their eyes off of Rei as they insulted her and other females with their generalizations, they failed to notice Rei moving towards them. It was not until it was too late they finally realized Rei was in front of them and ready to punch their lights out. Rei interrupted Kenta’s little ‘conversation’ with his lackeys with a punch to the nose which sent him to the ground on his back and he dropped the backpack.

The other two were dumbstruck by their leader’s fall that it did not occur to them that Rei was planning on doing the exact same thing to them. Despite only being eight years old, Rei knew enough basic karate to inflict some damage. She proceed to use a side kick with her left foot to hit the stomach of one of the subordinates. The opponent was unbalanced and Rei quickly followed up with a punch to his right cheek to send him to the ground as well.

While the first two went down easily, the last one would not be taken by surprise. He attempted to grab Rei. After she avoided his grabbing attempt, she proceeded to kick him in the groin. That was enough to cause him to fall to the ground as he crouched and fell over in pain. Rei felt quite a bit of satisfaction from hearing his groans.

It was Rei’s time to boast, “Girls aren’t weaker than boys, but boys are definitely stupider than girls. If you had any brains, you wouldn’t have looked away from me and you wouldn’t be on the ground right now.”

Hearing this enraged the leader as he got up from the ground. Rei’s punch from earlier caused his nose to bleed and blood was pouring out of his nose like a leaky faucet. He angrily stated, “We’re not dumber or weaker than you.”

Rei shot back, “Of course you are. You only pick on little girls who can’t defend themselves because you are weak and cowardly.”

Kenta was not pleased to listen to this as he shouted, “Why you Silver Haired Freak!” He attempted to punch her, but she managed to narrowly dodge it. She countered by punching him in the face. It did not cause him to fall to the ground again, but he did take a few steps back. Rei decided to take a few steps back herself because she was not sure if attacking him again would be a good idea since his guard was up.

She told Kenta, “You’re dumber than me because you decided to pick a fight with me.”

At first Kenta appeared to be pissed by Rei’s statement, but he did not say anything. Instead, his face began to look rather smug for someone who was an Elementary School student. At first she was confused by this, but then she noticed that while the subordinate she kicked in the groin was still on the ground the other one was gone. She looked behind her and saw the other subordinate was behind her. He hit her on the back of the head before she could react which caused her hat to fall off and be carried away by the wind. Kenta followed up with his subordinate’s attack by kicking Rei to the ground.

When Kenta tried to step on Rei’s head with his foot, she rolled out of the way and managed to get back on her feet. Kenta gloated, “You’re not so tough now.”

Rei quickly glanced around and noticed there was a stick near where she was and quickly picked it up. Kenta seemed unimpressed as he said, “What’s that going to do?”

He began running at Rei and Rei threw the stick at Kenta’s direction hoping that it would hit his face. As luck would have it, it hit him which caused Kenta to cry out in pain, “Aw my face.”

Rei took advantage of this and proceeded to kick Kenta in the groin like she did to his other subordinate. It was a technique that was anything but refined but it got the job done. Kenta feel to his knees as he put his hands to his groin and groaned, “You freak!”

Instead of being offended by what he said, she told him, “Don’t be a sore loser.” She then turned to Kenta’s subordinate and asked, “Do you still want to fight?”

The subordinate clearly did not want anything more to do with this. He nervously shook his head to indicate he surrendered. Rei then asked, “Do you still think girls are weak?” Kenta did not give a response but his subordinate continued to nervously shake his head. Rei picked up the stick that she three threw at Kenta and pointed it at the subordinate. She threatened him and told him, “Take your buddies and leave this girl alone! Got it?”

Kenta answered for his subordinate as he struggled to get up, “Fine you can have her backpack.” The other subordinate who Rei kicked in the groin were still clearly in pain, but he seemed to recover since he was standing more upright rather than how Kenta was still hunched over.

As Kenta’s relatively unharmed subordinate decided to try to help support him, Rei quickly looked around. She saw that no one else had witnessed what happened. Most of the people, including the teachers, were gone, and this area was a place people were less likely to be in which was why Kenta and his subordinates were bullying the girl here.

Rei thought in relief, “Thank goodness none of our teachers were here to see this.” She then looked at the stick she was holding in her hand and thought, “Since none of the teachers are watching, I don’t think this will be a problem.”

Before Kenta and his subordinates could make their getaway, Rei hit the head of the one who attacked her from behind. When she hit him in the back of the head, Rei briefly smiled for giving Kenta’s subordinate his comeuppance for attacking her. This attack caused the boy to groan in pain as he let go of Kenta and rubbed his head. If he was older, he would have cursed. Instead he said, “What did you do that for?”

Rei nonchalantly told him, “For hitting me in the back of the head. You don’t like how it feels do you?”

The boy was about to say, “I’m going to tell …”

Rei interrupted him, “You’re going to tell on me? Are you going to tell them, you lost to a weak girl when it was three of you against me? Are you going to tell them, you were picking on a little girl with pigtails? Are you going to tell them, you ran away like cowards?” Even though Rei did not want to admit it, she was enjoying the power that she had over these bullies. The bullies could tell she was enjoying it too. It was different from the voice she used that sounded protective of the little girl. This was a voice of amusement.

The boy and Kenta said nothing but glare and scowl at Rei before continuing their retreat. Rei gleefully thought to herself, “I didn’t think so.”

After seeing her opponents run away like the cowards they were, Rei sighed heavily. She was relieved to see them retreat. Even though she was doing a good job holding her own, she was not sure if she would have been able to hold on forever if they kept getting up. However, despite the difficulty of the position, she did get a thrill out of doing this, and she enjoyed making them pay for what they did to the girl, for what they did to her, and what they said about girls.

As Rei sighed heavily and turned around, looking at the girl who was staring up at her in surprise. She was still crying a little bit, but it was greatly reduced from the near sobbing she had been doing before. When Rei saw the girl, she changed from feeling amused by her actions to feeling concerned about the girl. 

Rei thought, “I hope she is okay.” Rei looked to the side to see that the girl’s backpack was still where Kenta dropped it. She walked over and picked it up before starting to walk over to the girl.

///

After the fight between Rei and the school bullies began, the little girl quickly ran from the immediate area until she was at a safe distance from the fighting. She watched in awe as the girl with silver hair stood up for her and beat the crap out of the bullies who had been tormenting her. The girl was amazed that anyone would stand up for her, let alone the ‘Silver Haired Freak’ her classmates spoke about. She did not seem to mind how the girl had hit one of the on the back of the head with a stick after the way they bullied her. She was actually more concerned about whether the girl was hurt.

As she was watching the fight, the first thoughts that came to Rise’s mind were, “She is the girl with silver hair my classmates were talking about. They were wrong about. She’s not a freak. She’s nice, strong, and her hair is beautiful.”

Even though tears were still pouring out of Rise’s eyes, she was happy that someone was standing up to her. She thought, “I never thought anyone would stand up for me.”

After the silver haired girl finished with the boys that were picking on her, the silver haired girl picked up Rise’s red backpack and walked over to her. Rei kneeled on the ground so Rise and her were at eye level as she greeted Rise, “Um…Hi?”

Rise hesitantly returned the greeting, “Hello.”

Rei assured the red haired girl, “You don't have to worry about those boys, I taught them a lesson.”

The smaller girl cracked a smile, and replied, “Thank you for helping me. Are you okay?”

“It’s not a problem.” Rei instinctively touched the area where she was hit earlier and assured the girl, “Thanks for asking. I’m fine. He didn’t really hurt me.” Rei could see that despite Rise smiling that she still had a teary eyed look, so she asked, “Are you still upset?”

Even though Rise wanted to say no, she could not tell a lie. She answered truthfully, “A little.”

Despite Rei’s young age, she was quite empathetic towards Rise’s feelings. She already understood why Rise would still be upset. After all, Rei had been excluded by a majority of her classmates, so she knew how it felt to not fit in. However, she could see that Rise’s problem was greater due to the physical harm those bullies were inflicting upon her.

Rei assured the younger girl, “That’s okay. I think I know something that might help you feel better.” Rei placed both her own and the younger girl’s backpacks on the ground beside them. She kneeled down on the ground as she rummaged through her red backpack. She dug around until she eventually found a piece of thick, blue paper. Rei said out loud, “This will do.”

As Rei sat on the ground folding the paper, Rise looked at what Rei was doing with curiosity. She shyly asked, “What … What are you doing? What are you making?” The curiosity in the girl’s voice indicated she was not crying anymore. Her blue eyes were still a little bloodshot from the crying, but they were beginning to get better thanks to her savior.

Rei bit her lip as she told the girl, “Give me a minute. I’ll be done in just a minute.”

Rise replied, “Okay,” as she continued to watch Rei folding the paper.

Rei continued to focus on her. When she was almost done she thought, “I just need to fold it just right a few more times and that should do it.”

As soon as Rei was finished, she said, “It’s done.” She then showed it to the young girl and her hands were holding a small blue origami crane. 

Seeing this caused the younger girl to smile and say, “It’s so pretty.”

Rei handed the origami crane over to the girl and said, “This is for you.”

Rise asked in an uncertain tone, “Really?”

Rei nodded as she assured the girl, “Yes. You can take it, but be gentle. It is made out of paper, so it can be wrinkled easily.”

Rise slowly reached for the origami crane and held it in her hands with care. She did not want to ruin the present her savior had given her. She marveled at how wonderful it looked. Rise asked in a curious tone, “It looks so great. How did you make this?”

With pride, Rei answered, “With a lot of practice. If you practice, I’m sure that you can do it too.” Rei also thought, “I had a lot of time to practice alone in my home. If I didn’t do that, I probably would have gone crazy being by myself all the time.”

“I see.” Rise shyly asked, “Can … Can you teach me?”

The request she received, made Rei blush a little. No one had ever asked her for a favor before. It was kind of new for her. She said, “Okay, but isn’t it getting a little late? Shouldn’t you be getting home?”

Rise shook her head, “My parents told me they were going to be late today. What about you?”

Rei hesitantly answered, “My parents … My parents told me the same thing. Anyway, I’d be happy to teach you a little origami.”

Due to her young age, Rise did not pick up on the hesitation in Rei’s voice. She was just happy that Rei would teach her some origami. She replied, “Thank you. My name is Kujikawa Rise. What’s your name?”

Once again, Rei was hesitant to answer Rise’s question, but she told Rise, “My name is Narukami.”

Rise happily said, “It’s to meet you Narukami-san. I hope we get along.”

The girl’s happy demeanor caused Rei to blush a little because this was the first time she really interacted with someone else in her school like this outside of her karate club. This was pretty much a new experience for Rei, so she was not really sure what to say next. Her common sense told her to say, “I hope we get along as well.”

For a few minutes, Rei showed Rise the specific ways on how to fold the paper to create cranes. Due to this being Rise’s first time doing this, she made a few mistakes, but Rei assured her that she made a few of those mistakes when she started. As they were doing this, Rise could not help but look at Rei’s silver hair. When the setting sunshine hit Rei’s hair, it shined in a way that was different from how other people’s hair would be affected if the sunshine hit it.

Rise decided to ask, “Hey Narukami, has anyone ever told you that your hair is pretty?”

After Rise said that to her, Rei’s was visibly surprised and thought, “What?” This was the first person to tell Rei that her hair was pretty. She told Rise in an embarrassed tone, “No.”

Rise told her, “Why not? Your hair is beautiful. I like how it looks and the way it shines. You should really think about growing it out. I think you would look wonderful with longer hair.”

Rei slowly said, “Um … Thanks.” Rei quickly decided to change the topic, “Anyway, can you make me a promise Kujikawa-san?”

Rise was taken aback by the sudden change in topics, but she did not complain. Instead she asked, “What would you like me to promise?”

Rei told her, “You can use the origami crane I gave you to make a wish. If you make a wish on it, it’s supposed to come true. You’ve gotta promise me that you will make a wish. Okay?”

This caused Rise to smile even more as she replied, “Okay. I’ll be happy to make a wish. I’ll …” Rise was not able to finish her sentence.

As Rise was about to say something else to Rei, a crisp, feminine voice called out, “Rise-chan?” The two girls looked towards the source of the voice. It was a tall woman, wearing a beige faux fur coat and black high heels. She was walking briskly as she was looking for Rise. Similar to Rise, the woman had red hair, but her hair was elegantly tied up. She also had perfect porcelain skin and chocolate brown eyes. It made Rei wonder if this is what the girl sitting next to her would look like down the line with the exception of having blue eyes.

Rise waved and called out to the woman, “I’m over here mom!”

The woman looked at the two girls and quickly walked in their direction. “There you are! I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” She then noticed her daughter had something in her hand and she asked, “What have you been up to while you’ve been waiting for me?”

Rise responded, “I’ve just been having fun with origami with my friend.”

The woman noticed Rei sitting nearby and she smiled as she asked, “Who would this charming young lady be?”

Once again, Rei felt herself blush upon hearing someone complement her. At first she averted her eyes from the woman, but she realized it was rude. As she turned to answer the woman’s question, Rise answered the question for her, “This is Narukami-san. She’s my new friend.” Rise picked up the origami crane that Rei had made for her and showed it to her mother while happily saying, “Look at this origami crane she made for me.”

Rise’s mother seemed impressed by what she saw as she commented, “Well that is creative.” She looked directly at Rei as she told her, “You have talent. There’s no doubt about that.” She then held out her hand and said, “It is a pleasure to meet you Narukami-san. I’m Rise’s mother.”

When Rise called Rei her friend, it caused Rei to think, “Is making friends that easy?” After Rise’s mother introduced herself, Rei got up from the ground and shook the woman’s hand and replied, “It’s nice to meet you too.”

The woman thought, “She seems to be a polite child.” After remembering that they were in a rush she said, “Thank you for keeping my daughter company, but we need to be going. Please excuse us.”

While Rei was disappointed to see her new friend leaving so soon, but she replied, “Okay.” She then looked at Rise and asked, “Will I see you again?”

Rise enthusiastically nodded as she said, “Of course.” Rise then turned to her mother and asked, “Can Narukami-san come and play?”

The woman began to say, “She seems like a nice girl. I don’t see why …” Before she could finish her sentence, she heard a loud irritated honking. She took her daughter’s hand and said, “Come along Rise-chan. Your father is getting impatient as always and we have to get to that party later.” She made sure that her daughter had everything, including that origami crane that Rei made and then then looked at Rei again. She told the young girl, “It was nice meeting you. Have a good day?”

Before getting dragged away by her mother, Rise said, “Bye Narukami-san.”

Rei waved at Rise’s retreating figure and replied, “Goodbye.” Rei continued to watch the young girl until she saw her get ushered into the car and drive away out of sight. As she saw the car drive away, the thought that went through Rei’s head was, “She didn’t call me a freak. She said my hair was beautiful. She said I was her friend.” Rei then looked at her hand and thought in a bittersweet voice, “This seems too good to be true.” She then looked down the road even though the car was no longer in sight and said out loud, “I guess I’ll see how real it is when I meet her again.”

Afterwards, Rei knelt down on the ground to rummage through her backpack again. Instead of taking out more blue paper to create more origami, she took out a first aid kit. She quickly put a cold pack on the part of her head that had been hit. She also put spray on the areas that were scrapped when she feel on the ground.

Her common sense was telling her that she should go to the nurse’s office, but she gritted her teeth as she told herself, “I can take care of myself. I don’t need their help.”

As Rei sat there taking care of herself, she had a feeling that it would still be a little while until her parents would finally get there. Unfortunately, her feelings were right. By the time they arrived, they were none the wiser that Rei had any kind of trouble. They did not even ask if she had any problems while she waited for them for over an hour after her karate club ended.

///

Time: Fall 2002  
Location: Inaba – The Amagi Inn

Rei was far from the only girl who was having family problems at that time. A raven haired girl named Fukui-Amagi Yukiko, who resided in the town of Inaba, was listening to her parents argue. It was becoming something that was normal for her to hear. Yukiko had been told by some of the hotel staff that the marriage between her parents had always been rocky due to the fact it was an arranged marriage. Her mother apparently was in love with someone else, but she had to marry her father instead.

Her mother’s family, the Amagi family, were the proud owners of an Inn that had been in their control for years. Their inn had a luxurious hot spring and prided itself on its excellent food and service. The members of the Amagi Inn staff were like family to Yukiko. Her father’s family, the Fukui family, were also a family of entrepreneurs. However, their family had hit a few hard times following the 1991 crash that was partly the cause of the ‘Lost Decade.’ Yukiko did not know much about Japanese economic history yet, but the hotel staff told her that the circumstances made it necessary for the Fukui family to seek out an ‘alliance’ that could be sealed by marriage.

Apparently, her father fell in love with Nariko at first sight, but the feelings were far from mutual. The story goes that Nariko eventually accepted the match and helped move things along faster. Things were apparently okay between the two of them for a few years. Unfortunately, over a year ago, things had taking a turn for the worse. Whenever, Ren would look at Yukiko he would seem disgusted with looking at her. Despite Yukiko’s attempts to be nice to her father, he would ignore them. His actions would trigger some of the arguments that Ren and Nariko would have over these past few months.

These arguments were so normal that they seemed to be almost a common site. Yukiko would overhear a few of their fights. While she did not understand what exactly they were arguing about, she would hear her name muttered several times which caused her to believe she was somehow at fault. The arguments between the two had also become a normal occurrence for the hotel staff of the Amagi Inn to hear. It seemed as if the only time there was no fighting was when Ren would be out of town for business which was thankfully quite often. However, the fight they were having today was different. 

A woman’s voice could be heard, asking in a tone mixed with anger and shock, “What on earth are you saying?!” The woman’s voice belonged to Yukiko’s mother Amagi Nariko who looked like an older version of her daughter with her long beautiful black hair. However, while her daughter’s eyes were brown, Nariko’s eyes were blue.

In response to the woman’s voice, a man replied in an angry tone of his own, “That child isn't my daughter, and I know you've been lying to me for these past six years about it! She doesn't even look like me!” This voice belonged to Yukiko’s father, Fukio Ren. He was a relatively big man who stood several inches taller than his wife, he had light brown hair, and green eyes.

With an irritated voice, Nariko defended her daughter, “Just because Yukiko doesn’t look like you doesn’t mean she isn’t your daughter.” She glared at the man and to prevent herself from assaulting him, she kept her hands on the kitchen counter and grabbed the edges. Her hands were stiff with rage.

At first it seemed as if the man had calmed down when he said, “Nariko …” He pushed away his sweaty, light brown hair and sighed angrily as he told her, “I want you to stop lying to me.”

In an exasperated tone, Nariko replied, “I’m not!” Nariko sighed heavily as she put her hands on her face. “Ren, you need to listen to me okay? Why on earth would I cheat on you?” Her voice was becoming desperate to put an end to this fight.

The rage Ren was barely managing to conceal began reemerging as he told Nariko, “…You … You may not have cheated on me after we got married, but before that happened you made love to that son of a bitch and bored him a child.”

Hearing Ren say that shocked Nariko. All she could say was, “What?” It was the only word she could say to deny his accusations which was far from effective.

Ren was not interested in listening to anything else his wife had to say, so he rudely told her, “Don’t you say anything more! At first you seemed indifferent to the wedding arrangements and then suddenly you decided to rush the wedding plans. I think you were already pregnant with that child before we were actually married.” When he said the word ‘child,’ it had a little extra venom. “This was your version of a Shotgun Wedding, but it was with the man who did not father your child.” 

Nariko did not try to deny what he was saying. He took her silence as a sign that he was hitting the nail on the head. “I don’t need you to tell me that I’m right. I can tell I’m right just by looking at her eyes. When I see that child’s eyes, I see his eyes. Those eyes don’t belong to you nor me. They belong to him!”

After she heard him say that, Nariko bit her lip as she felt sicker with grief from each passing moment. She responded, “Her eye color is not proof that she isn’t yours.”

Ren found that comment to be easy to ignore as he fired back, “Maybe not, but there are plenty of other ways to prove she isn’t my child. Not to mention all your behavior after that girl was born.”

Nariko was getting tired of Ren not referring to her daughter by name as she stated in an irritated voice, “Her name is Yukiko.”

Ren shrugged that comment off as well, “Her name doesn’t matter to me. After that child was born, you knew she was his child. You told me having one child was enough for you, but you just didn’t want to have any of my children.”

“Oh god!” Nariko replied in a deadpan voice, “If you ever go through childbirth, I’m sure you will understand.”

Ren slammed one of his large, calloused hands down on the counter which caused Nariko to back away in fright. He loudly stated, “Because of you, I’ve been stuck with nothing but a bastard child that my family name rather than any of my own children for the past six years! Do you know what this will do to my reputation? She’s nothing but a disgrace!”

That was the last straw for Nariko as she loudly shot back at her husband filled with her own rage that she had been attempting to keep under control, “Screw your reputation! If that is what you believe then you can just get out!”

Ren growled out, his voice loud and boisterous. "What did you say to me?"

“Get out.” Nariko repeated lowly, shaking her head. “No one wants you around! Not the hotel staff and definitely not me! Yukiko is the only one who wants you around, but you can believe me she will eventually be happy not to have you around!”

Ren began to say, “Now wait you …”

Nariko loudly interrupted him because she was not going to stand for him insulting her daughter again. Shut up! Even if Yukiko wasn’t your daughter, you’ve treated her horribly. She’s done nothing but try to be a good daughter to you and you’ve treated her like garbage! I should have had you arrested for how you’ve treated her.” She continued to glare at him as she nearly shouted, “If you think she and I are disgraces you should look in a mirror because I see a poor excuse of a human being standing in front of me!” She took a deep, shuddering breath and took a step towards him. “Pack your things right now, and GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!”

Ren stared at her, mouth slightly agape and breathing heavily. His green eyes briefly stared into her blue eyes. After seeing that she was firm in what she was saying, he angrily turned away and marched upstairs. There was a loud slam of the bedroom door, and the sound of drawers being opened.

Nariko sank down to the floor. She didn’t know if she should be feeling sick or relieved after what happened. It was true that she did not love Ren, and a part of her felt that her life as well as her family would be better off without him. However, she was not sure how her daughter would react. After all, she always wanted Ren to care for her, but that was not going to be possible.

As Nariko was sitting there, a small gentle hand placed itself on the warm skin of her neck, above her silk kimono. She turned around to see the hand belonged to none other than her daughter Yukiko. When she saw her daughter, Nariko’s eyes widened as she thought, “Oh my God! Did Yukiko hear everything that happened?”

Yukiko asked in a worried, meek voice, “Mother are you okay?”

Nariko quickly hugged her daughter and told her, “I’ll be fine.”

Yukiko then asked, “Where’s father going?”

Nariko did the best she could to answer her daughter’s question, “He’s leaving.”

Yukiko asked in a guilty tone, “Was it because of me?”

In a horrified tone, Nariko asked her daughter, “How could you think that?”

Yukiko looked down as she sadly said, “I heard him call me something. I don’t know what it was, but it sounded bad.”

There was no denying that he called Yukiko an awful name, but there was no need to explain what it meant, so Nariko told her daughter as Nariko brushed Yukiko’s hair with her hand, “Yes. He did call you something horrible. He’s leaving now because I told him to leave. It’s not your fault. The fault belongs to both your father and me, but everything is going to be better now.”

Yukiko asked in an innocent voice, “Everything will be better because father is leaving?”

“Yes. Yes they will. I promise.” As Nariko was saying this, she was thinking, “I can give you the childhood that you truly deserve Yukiko.”

Despite how Ren had treated her for the past few months, Yukiko still had the following to say, “I … I don’t want him to leave.”

“I know you don’t. But believe me. When you’re older, you will understand why it is better this way.” She then broke the hug and put her harms on Yukiko’s shoulders so she could look her daughter in the eye as she asked, “Do you believe me Yukiko?”

Yukiko hesitantly replied, “Yes.”

Shortly after Yukiko said that, the two of them heard Ren’s footsteps rushing down the stairs and he slammed the door. That would mark the end of his role in either of Nariko or Yukiko’s lives. As soon as they heard that door slam, Nariko felt a calmness in the atmosphere as if a storm had finally passed. She thought, “She will understand when she’s older. If I tell her everything now, it will ruin her childhood.”

While Nariko felt calmer after hearing Ren’s departure, it caused Yukiko to become teary eyed. She started to say, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for …”

Before Yukiko could finish that sentence, Nariko hugged her daughter again and said, “This wasn’t your fault. None of it was. Starting tomorrow, we will be starting our lives over without him. You will be known as Amagi Yukiko from now on, and the two of us will be proud of the new lives we will have.”

Yukiko sadly replied with tears still in her eyes, “Okay.”

Nariko told her daughter, “Be proud of who you are and who you will become Amagi Yukiko. You are a great daughter, and I know you will become a great person when you become older. Don’t let anyone ever try to tell you otherwise. Because they won’t know what they are talking about.”

Yukiko did not respond to what her mother said. Instead she held onto her mother tighter and buried her face into Nariko’s shoulder. They remained like this for a long time.

///

Date: Fall 2002  
Location: Tatsumi Residence

The Tatsumi Textile Shop was another family run business within Inaba. This was one of the many family run businesses that could be found located in the shopping district. Almost all of the buildings located there were family businesses that not only contained where they conducted their operations but also where they lived. The Tatsumi family conducted business at the front of the home. The backrooms on the first floor was their living room, and their bedrooms were on the second floor. It was a modest two floor home, but there was plenty of space for this family of three. 

Unfortunately, in recent years, this area was starting to become a regular hangout for motorbike racers. Being able to get a good night’s sleep was becoming a reoccurring problem. While they were occasionally scared off by complaints and police coming to the area, they would eventually come back for some reason. Apparently, they either considered this a prime location or they got a kick out of waking people up. The motorbike racers never gave an actual reason for their actions, but it would be doubtful they had a good one.

The Tatsumi’s young son, Tasumi Kanji, wanted to fight against the motorbike gang, but his parents stopped him from trying. Even though he was big for his age, it did not change the fact he was only seven years old. The motorbike gang did not strike them as the type of people that would take it easy on a kid, and they were not willing to take the chance. They decided to simply put up with it for the time being.

During one of the quiet nights, Kanji was being taught the trade of sewing by his father. He had been acting as his father’s apprentice for the past few months. The six tatami mat room was littered with pieces of cloth in various sizes along with a large basin filled with sewing supplies. To top it off, there was a pink, electric sewing machine on a low, worn bamboo table where a single, shaded lamp provided light. Kanji’s mother was the one who purchased the sewing machine and she choose one with a pink color much to her husband’s chagrin. There was also a first aid kit on the table in case anyone hurt themselves sewing.

Kanji was sitting in the middle of the room with his father as he was attempting to complete work on his first teddy bear. While the young Tatsumi was getting good at sewing, he was still prone to making quite a few mistakes. As he was attempting to sew the teddy bear, he poked his index finger with a needle. This marked the fifth time he had poked himself in the past half hour and the bear was still a long way from being completed.

Kanji quickly put the bear on the table to check to his finger to see that it was not bleeding. After he saw that his finger was fine, he then sighed in frustration as he thought, “Making this teddy bear is much harder than I thought.” Kanji’s lips were up as he gritted his teeth. His stern gaze was focused solely on the half-finished bear that rested on the table. He picked up the bear again as he thought, “Let’s try again.”

Within a few minutes Kanji’s could feel the needle piercing his skin again. This caused him to react with a loud, “Ouch,” as he dropped the bear to the floor this time. Kanji saw that this time he did make his finger bleed. Kanji thought in a frustrated tone, “Why do I keep messing up? I thought I was doing everything right.”

Kanji’s father, Arashi Tatsumi, noticed that his son was having difficulty. He quickly picked up the first aid kit and treated his son’s finger. Arashi told his son, “It appears you are having some difficulty Kanji-kun.”

Hearing his father say that caused Kanji to look down in shame as he replied, “I’m sorry dad. I’m doing a pretty bad job. I’m not sure if I can finish this teddy bear.” While he was saying this, Kanji thought, “Maybe I’m better off. I heard some kids in my school make fun of people who sew.”

Arashi assured his son, “You don’t have to worry about that. You’re young and you are bound to make mistakes. It is all part of the learning process.” This caused Kanji’s head to look up to his father with a more hopeful expression. Arashi glanced at the half finished bear and picked it up. He gently took the bear from his son and examined the stiches carefully. He told Kanji, “This is something I believe you should see.”

Kanji leaned in to examine the bear a little more closely as his father began to point out what seemed right and where the flaws were. He told his son, “The cross stich is good, but you keep going farther away each time.” Arashi pointed to the specific areas he was referencing so Kanji could see it better.

It did not take Kanji long to understand what his father was telling him. “Oh.” Kanji stated simply, he glanced up at his father as he sheepishly said, “I guess I see where I'm messing up.”

Arashi told his son in an encouraging tone, “For your first attempt, you’ve done rather well. If you keep trying, I believe you will be able to finish this.”

Kanji asked in a hopeful tone, “Do you really think so?”

Arashi told him, “As long as you don’t give up, I know you will. You are more talented that you give yourself credit for. When you get older, I’m certain that you will surpass me in this, and you will be running this store yourself.”

At first Kanji seemed excited when his father told him this, but suddenly Kanji’s face became saddened for some reason. This was not lost on Arashi as he asked Kanji with a concerned tone, “Are you okay Kanji? Did I say something that upset you?”

Kanji replied, “No. I’m okay, but is sewing something a boy should do?”

Arashi was taken aback by his son’s question as he asked one of his own, “What do you mean by that?”

Kanji looked at his father as he answered, “There is someone else in my school who is good at sewing, and I heard some of the other boys saying that sewing is a girl’s talent and boys should be doing other stuff.”

Arashi calmly told his son, “You shouldn’t listen to those kind of people Kanji.” He carefully handed the bear back to his son.

Kanji took the bear back as he asked an exasperated tone, “But what happens if they call me a sissy for knowing how to sew? What if they all make fun of me for being a ‘girly boy’?”

While Arashi was not completely surprised that his son would eventually bring up this concern, he did not expect it to happen so soon. He let out a long sigh and shut his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, he told his son in a calm, reassuring voice, “Kanji. You should do what makes you feel happy and be yourself.” He touched his son’s shoulder as he continued his point, “Nothing those boys say now is going to matter by the time you’re an adult as long as you are happy doing what you do.”

Kanji remained silent for a few moments to take in what his father had told him. After taking time to process, he told his father, “I’ll try.”

Arashi smiled as he told his son, “That’s a step in the right direction.” He then playfully brushed his son’s hair and the two of them exchanged a laugh.

Kanji unexpectantly moved and hugged his father while telling him, “I love you dad.”

Arashi returned the hug. “I know. I love you too.” He then noticed what time it was and had to break off the hug as he told his son, “It looks like it’s almost time for dinner. We shouldn’t keep your mom waiting.”

Kanji nodded as he followed his father out of the room. The half-finished teddy bear remained on the table awaiting Kanji’s return. If the teddy bear could talk, it would say it would be waiting patiently for Kanji to finish his work.

///

Date: Fall 2002  
Location: Satonaka Residence

Unlike the Amagi or Tatsumi residences, the Satonaka residence was a normal Japanese home located in the residential district of Inaba. There was nothing special about this home that set it apart from other homes. It was a normal two story home, with a standard number of rooms, and it had a backyard. Even though it would normally be enough room for most people, it would not be the case with this family of three and one dog. What was unique about this home, was not the home itself, but it was one of the occupants.

Despite not having a family business or some kind of outstanding reputation within the community of Inaba, the Satonaka family was becoming rather famous or notorious throughout the town. They were becoming famous for a rather unique reason. The source of their fame and infamy was their daughter Satonaka Chie. While their daughter Chie was not some delinquent, she was a rather ‘overly energetic’ daughter. She was obsessed with karate and fighting. Her parents had been hoping that she would calm down a little after bringing a dog home, but it soon became apparent that nothing was capable of quelling her overabundance of energy even though she had a dog to play with. Without meaning to, she occasionally caused some property damage as a result whether it be in the Satonaka residence or someone else’s.

Chie’s mother, Satonaka Kyoko, was a petite woman with brown hair that reached her shoulders and could be described as being uptight but for good reason. She wanted her daughter to act more lady-like. However, even though her daughter was not even eight years old yet, Kyoko’s instincts told her that it that was an unlikely objective to achieve. This was especially true since her husband did not seem too interested in having a daughter who was too ‘ladylike.’

When Kyoko walked into the spacious living room, she found her husband sitting on the couch with a can of Asahi beer in one hand and the remote in the other. He was lazily flipping through the channels without really paying attention to what was on them. Her husband, Satonaka Taichi, was a muscular man who was far more relaxed than her. While he would take major problems seriously, he was willing to be more lenient about the smaller ones. In fact, he seemed to be more encouraging of his daughter’s tomboy antics. He personally liked the idea of having strong daughter. While he was aware and concerned about the damage his daughter caused, his reactions were much calmer than his wife’s.

Kyoko asked her husband in a concerned voice, “Taichi-kun, have you seen Chie?”

While he continued flipping through the channels he answered, “Sorry, I haven’t seen her.”

As soon as he said that, he could hear his wife groan and he looked up to see the worried look on her face. It amused him whenever she had that expression. He reluctantly decided to ask her, “What did Chie break this time?”

Kyoko sighed at her husband’s indifference as she ran a hand through her messy blond locks. “I believe it is more of a question about what she hasn’t broken already.”

His wife’s statement caught Taichi’s attention as he raised one of his eyebrows and asked in a skeptical tone, “Are you talking about that dog she brought home? As far as I can tell, that dog has been …”

Kyoko interrupted her husband, “No it isn’t that. The dog has actually been a better addition to the family than I thought it would.”

Taichi responded, “Then what’s the problem? We haven’t received any new complaints recently.”

“No, but I think it is only a matter of time before she breaks something else.” She smoothed out her apron as she sat next to him. She held one of Taichi’s large, muscular hands in her petite hands as she told him, “I’m just worried about her. I think we need to find her a place to burn off more of her energy, so she can calm down.”

Taichi nodded as he gave his wife a sheepish look, “Just like me huh?” He laughed as used his other hand to scratch the back of his black haired head.

Her husband’s question amused her. Kyoko’s brown eyes sparkled as she jokingly said, “If she turns out to be exactly like you, I’ll have to tell her teachers and everyone in this neighborhood to run for the hills.” She then topped it off by gently poking him on the nose.

After his wife was done having her fun, he told her, “Believe it or not, I’ve actually been giving some thought into what we can do about her excess energy as well.”

Kyoko asked in a playfully skeptical tone, “Really? You’re not generally the type to take the initiative.”

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.” Taichi began to tell his wife, “The place I was thinking about taking her was …”

Before Taichi could finish his statement, the couple heard a loud ‘Crash’ from outside that startled them. Neither one of them needed to guess who caused that sound. In their heads, the both of them were thinking, “Speak of the Devil.”

Even though they did not need confirmation, they soon heard a small feminine voice say, “Uh-oh …” That seemed to be their daughter’s standard response to whenever she broke something.

This time their daughter had put her foot through the rice paper door that separated their backyard from their living room. They could see the silhouette of their little girl. As they could see, their daughter was stuck and she was having trouble getting her foot out of the door.

Both of her parents stood up abruptly as they rushed outside to help their daughter. After they were outside, Kyoko said out loud in a frightened voice, “Chie! What on earth were you thinking? What made you think kicking a door was a good idea?” She did not really expect to hear any responses to those questions.

Taichi stood behind his daughter to make sure she remained balanced while Kyoko worked on trying to free her daughter’s foot. As Kyoko and Taichi were helping Chie get her foot unstuck from the door, Kyoko thought in relief, “She’s luck that this was a rice paper door and it wasn’t made out of glass. I don’t even want to think about how badly she could’ve hurt herself.”

After they managed to finally free their daughter, they were relieved to see that she was not injured. At first it did not appear to dawn on the girl how wrong her actions were until she looked up to see her father’s disapproving look. This caused the girl to sit on the wooden platform, duck her head, and be flushed with embarrassment. She sheepishly said, “I’m sorry mom. I’m sorry dad. It was an accident.”

Both Kyoko and her husband sat down on the wooden platform, so they could be at eye leve with their daughter. Kyoko asked in an exasperated tone, “How does an accident like that happen?”

Chie hesitantly admitted as she was shifting one of her bare feet against the cold, hard wooden floor, “I was …. I was just trying to train.”

After hearing her daughter’s answer she quickly glanced at her husband before asking, “Train for what? You’re a six year old girl, why would you need to train?”

Taichi chimed in with a question of his own, “Why would you feel like you need to train in the first place?”

When she was asked these questions, the first thought that came to Chie’s mind was, “I’m training because Yukiko-san looked so sad the other day when I walked her home. Her father looked really mean.” However, Chie had a feeling she could not give that answer. She had trouble coming up with a passable answer at first, “Well I … uh. … Um, well there was this really cool movie on the other day.” As she was telling her parents this answer, she bit the inside of her lip. “I thought that I’d try out some of the moves the characters did.” Chie pointed to the hole in the door and said in a triumphant tone, “I was trying out the ‘Rounded House Kick.’”

Taichi corrected his daughter, “I think you mean the ‘Round House Kick.’” 

As he was correcting his daughter, he ignored a look he received from his wife. The look he was receiving was basically saying, “That’s what you’re focusing on?”

Chie scratched the back of her head as she sheepishly responded, “Oh. That’s what it’s called.”

Taichi then told her, “You didn’t really answer our questions Chie-chan.” He calmly said to her, “Please tell us the truth.”

When Chie saw that her attempt to avoid directly answering her parents question failed, she decided to be upfront with her real reasons. She told them, “I want to be strong enough to protect Yukiko-san.”

While Kyoko was surprised by her answer, Taichi did not seem too shocked. Kyoko questioned, “Yukiko-san is your new friend right?”

After Chie nodded, Kyoko further inquired, “Why would she need protecting Chie-chan? She has parents.”

Chie admitted, “Her dad’s mean. He yelled at her when I brought her home, and he didn’t even thank me. All she did was try to be nice to him, and he still yelled at her.”

Before Kyoko could say anything, Taichi stated, “That doesn’t sound too surprising. I’ve heard quite a bit about her father. From my understanding, he is not the friendliest person.” Kyoko remained silent because she could not think of anything else to say but take her husband’s word for it. She also heard a few rumors about there being marital problems with the Amagi and Fukio, but she did not hear much more than that. Taichi put his hand on Chie’s shoulder as he told her, “Well, do you know what this means?”

When her husband asked that question, Kyoko immediately jumped to conclusions as she asked in a concerned voice, “Taichi-kun! You’re not going to head over to the Amagi Inn …”

Before she could finish her sentence, Taichi shook his head and told her, “No. I’m was going to say that it is time for our daughter to begin taking some karate classes.”

Both Chie and Kyoko were confused by that statement as they simultaneously asked, “Karate classes?”

Taichi explained, “I’ve been setting some money aside for the past few weeks, so you can take karate classes Chie-chan. They will help you burn off your excess energy while also making you a capable fighter who can protect her friend. If you take these karate classes, you should become strong enough to protect your friend Yukiko-san from anyone who tries to harm her.”

Chie’s widened as she asked in an uncertain tone, “Do you mean it?”

Taichi happily responded, “Of course. When I was about your age, I was an energetic kid who wanted to help people. I began taking karate classes myself, and they helped make me the person I became. I believe they will be able to do the same for you.”

As soon as he told her that, Chie hugged him around his neck and told him in an adorable voice, “You’re the coolest dad ever! Thank you so much! I love you! I really love you!”

Taichi placed a hand on Chie’s head as he continued to smile. He told her, “I know. I love you too. However, there is one thing that I want you to keep in mind before you take these karate classes.”

Chie let go of her father and asked, “What’s that?”

In a serious voice he told her, “These lessons you will be taking will be meant for protecting both yourself and others. They will make you into someone who is strong, but people with strength might not always use their strength to help others.”

Chie asked, “Do you mean they might use it to bully others like Yukiko’s dad bullies her?”

While that was not the most ideal example he would have used, Taichi decided to go along with that. He replied, “Exactly. He uses his strength for the wrong reasons. You need to avoid becoming someone like that. Do you understand?”

Chie nodded, “Yes. I promise to be good.” The look in Chie’s eyes showcased her desire to utilize what she learns to help others.

Seeing his daughter’s determined look satisfied Taichi and it caused him to smile as he said, “I’m glad to hear that.” Taichi then remembered something and told his daughter, “Oh and one more thing.”

Chie asked in a curious voice, “What is it?”

In a playful voice Taichi told her, “Be sure to eat plenty of steak.”

“Steak?” Chie was clearly surprised by what her father said.

Enthusiasm must have been a family trait passed down in the Satonaka family because Taichi explained to his daughter in an enthusiastic voice, “Of course. Steak not only tastes great, but it is good for you. It has plenty of protein, iron and other nutrients that will make you strong.” In case that was not enough to convince his daughter, Taichi added, “When you grow up, you will be both skilled and strong enough to protect anyone you want.” While Taichi was explaining this, his wife stood to the side with an amused look on her face.

While picturing herself becoming a great warrior, Chie enthusiastically responded with an innocent smile, “That sounds great. I look forward to eating lots of steak.”

“That’s my girl.” He patted and rubbed his daughter’s head before telling her, “Now go and wash up. Dinner is going to be ready soon.”

Chie happily replied, “Okay.” She let go of her father and ran upstairs to clean up.

As soon as Chie was gone, Taichi looked over to his wife who had another amused expression on her face. Taichi could not help but ask, “What?”

Kyoko replied in a deadpan tone, “I really hope her teachers are ready to run marathons.”

///

Date: Fall 2002  
Location: Outskirts of Inaba – Shirogane Estate

The Shirogane Estate was a rather large mansion that had about two dozen room, including a room in the basement that acted as a shooting range. It was located on the countryside near a town called Inaba. The Estate had a rather large courtyard both in the front and the back. It had tall hedges that appeared to act as fences around the estate. In actuality, there were medal fences hidden underneath them. There was a towering gate to the driveway that could only be activated by someone who knew the code. They would generally have no problem opening the gate for guests and/or delivery men.

All of the windows in the Shirogane Estate were made of bulletproof glass in case of whether any potential enemies that the Shirogane had made over the years ever attempted to take revenge. Certain windows were capable of being opened from the inside to allow a breeze through, but they could not be opened to widely otherwise it would completely defeat the purpose of having bulletproof windows. There were also security systems that would alert the residents if someone was attempting to force his or her way in. While the property seemed like a secure place, it was not completely intruder-proof. Many thieves had attempted to sneak into the house and while most of them had been caught, there had been had least one or two successful break-ins in the past.

Since the Shirogane Estate was isolated from other places, it was a tranquil and quiet place to live. The location also made it an ideal place for being able to train in peace. The profession that most members of the Shirogane Estate would train for would be to be a detective. It has been the profession that has been passed down for generations, and the family managed to acquire quite a bit of wealth. Some of that wealth could also be contributed to the fact some of the members of the family wrote detective books based on their experiences following their retirement.

The current head of the Shirogane Estate and the family business was a middle aged man name Shirogane Kenshin. He was approximately fifty-five years of age, but he seemed to be in great shape due to how often he worked out. It was possible for some people to mistaken him for someone in his forties rather than fifties. The man was a relatively tall man with dark hair that was slowly graying. He had to wear glasses over his dark eyes due to his failing vision. He also had a rather large nose, and a firm chin. Kenshin had maintained his family’s business for over thirty years, and he was responsible for solving dozens upon dozens of cases. Based on current circumstances, it seemed like he would be remaining the head of the Estate and family business for the foreseeable future.

Originally, Kenshin’s son was the one who was set to become the next head of the family and inherit the family business. His son was proving to be a good detective in his own right and capable of succeeding him one day. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be. Kenshin’s son and daughter-in-law had died in a horrific car accident. At first Kenshin believed that the car accident was caused by foul play, but as much as he tried to investigate the accident, he could never find evidence that what happened was nothing more than an accident. It took him sometime to finally accept the fact that it was an accident that claimed his son and his daughter-in-law’s lives.

As saddened as Kenshin was by his son’s death, he did the best he could not let it cripple him. He knew he still had his own life to live, and he still had family that he needed to care for. When his son died, the only legacy he left behind was his daughter, Shirogane Naoto who was only three at the time. Without hesitation, Kenshin took custody of his granddaughter. He would do everything he could to take care of her. He would not be alone in raising her, he would receive some assistance in that regard.

Several years later, his granddaughter was already showing certain signs of being like her father. Despite her young age, she was already proving to be quite intelligent and curious about many things in the world. He even caught her sneaking into his office and reading some of his books. He was never angry at his granddaughter for doing that. Instead, he was pleased by how much she reminded him of his late son among other things. A part of Kenshin was tempted to consider training his granddaughter to become a detective. However, he was not sure if it was the right thing to do.

Whenever Kenshin would think about it, the general thoughts that would come into his head would be, “My granddaughter is still very young. I shouldn’t think about rushing something like that. She should make her own decisions. Besides, being a detective is not exactly a risk free occupation, and she is the only grandchild I have. I should not take that for granted.”

Despite being a master detective who was capable of solving numerous mysteries, there was one mystery that Kenshin was plagued with on a regular basis. The mystery was the whereabouts of his granddaughter. She had a habit of disappearing on a somewhat regular basis. While Kenshin would not go as far as panicking, he did tend to not be as capable of using his rational mind whenever she disappeared since she was the only child of his son. Sometimes he would find her in his office, other times he would find her in various other places on the Estate checking out where she could learn more about the profession of being a detective.

One day during one of Naoto’s disappearances, Kenshin asked the man he approached in a concerned voice, “Yakushiji have you seen Naoto anywhere?”

The man identified as Yakushiji was a well-dressed man with gray hair who always wore sunglasses. He was the Secretary of the Shirogane Estate, and he has been a loyal worker to Kenshin as well as the Shirogane family for years. Yakushiji and Kenshin’s families have worked with each other for generations and the two of them had been friends since before Kenshin took up the mantle of his family. After being friends for decades, it was not unusual for someone to mistaken them for being brothers.

Yakushiji could understand his friend’s concern for his granddaughter, but he believed there was nothing to fear. He told his friend, “I’m sure there is no need to worry. Despite her young age, Naoto-sama has always been curious about what you do Kenshin. She looks up to you, and I’m sure she just wants to imitate you.”

Kenshin replied, “I had a feeling you would say something like that.” He rushed past his friend towards where he believed his granddaughter might be. As he was moving towards his office he thought, “She is probably in my office again.” He was walking rather fast to the point of almost running over to where his office was located hoping that he was right.

When he arrived at the door, he seemed strangely uneasy about opening the door, even though this was the door to his own office. He was hoping that his granddaughter would be behind that door, but he was a little worried that she would not be. After telling himself, it was stupid to be hesitant in this situation, he reached for the handle and slowly opened the door. As soon as he opened the door, he was relieved to see his granddaughter sitting on the floor reading a Sherlock Holmes book with several books piled up next to her. Kenshin could not help but breathe a sigh of relief when he saw her safe and sound.

Kenshin’s office was a rather extravagant area. There was an old oak desk placed near a large window that was made of bulletproof glass. On both sides to the desk there were large bookcases stacked high with various reading material. The contents of the bookcase ranged from old cases the Shirogane family had previously solved to books that were useful in training a detective, as well as volumes of detective novels, such as Sherlock Holmes.

When Kenshin entered the room, his granddaughter did not seem to notice his presence. Instead, she seemed to be rather entranced by what she was reading. It was almost as if she was in another world, and she was unable to hear anything else that was happening but her own thoughts. Despite how advanced the reading material was, she was reading it with ease. Her eyes were quickly reading through the lines one by one and turning the page.

As she was reading the book, Naoto excitedly thought, “I knew it! I knew it! I knew that guy had to be the culprit! It seemed so obvious!”

Seeing his granddaughter reading the books with such enthusiasm caused Kenshin to smile rather than be upset. He thought, “She truly does take after her father. I’m sure he would be proud to see his daughter is already off to a good start in securing a promising future.”

After looking at her read for a few moments, he decided to get her attention. He loudly cleared his throat, “Ahem,” and then called out to her, “Naoto.”

///

The little girl was finally brought out of her little world when she heard the, “Ahem.” Her eyes widened at the thought of whose voice that belonged to because she had heard that before. Her face continued to remain down until she heard the voice say, “Naoto.” 

She nervously looked up to see that her grandfather was standing at the doorway. He did not seem angry or annoyed, but she was still nervous nevertheless that he caught her again. Naoto silently gulped at what was the come. She had a feeling that she was probably going to receive a scolding or something. However, she did not mind the idea of being scolded. As far as she could tell, it would have been worth it because she did enjoy reading his books, and she knew the risks of coming into his office.

The office was silent for a few moments. The only sound that could be heard was the warm spring breeze that flowed through the window that Naoto had opened. Naoto finally decided to break the silence by nervously saying, “Grandfather.”

At this point, Kenshin was not sure what amused him more. The fact his granddaughter snuck into his office again to read Sherlock Holmes or that she was so nervous by him catching her. He walked over to his granddaughter and kneeled down beside her as he playfully told her, “The next time you try sneaking into my office, you might want to consider taking the books you want and sneaking them into your room, so I won’t catch you red handed next time.”

Naoto responded, “The books are too heavy for me to carry, and I’d be caught by you or Yakushiji-san anyway. At least if I try reading here, I can at least put the books back.”

Kenshin was a little surprised by his granddaughter’s rather logical point. She was definitely wise beyond her years even if it did technically involve ‘breaking and entering’ into someone’s office. “Good point.” Kenshin decided to change his mood to being more serious as he told her with a stern look, “All jokes aside, what have I told you about entering another person’s room without their permission.”

Naoto could see that her grandfather was serious as she recited what he had told her, “You’ve told me that, ‘It is rude to enter other people’s rooms without their permission because I would be invading their privacy and trespassing on their property.’”

Kenshin nodded as he told, “I see that you remember what I’ve told you, but you are not the best at following what I say.”

Naoto shamefully said, “I’m sorry Grandfather.”

With a stern voice, Kenshin lectured his granddaughter, “Sorry might be fine this time, but it might not be fine at other times. There are some mistakes that you might make down the line that could end up getting you in trouble which you can barely imagine. I’ve made numerous mistakes in my youth that I could have easily prevented if I had listened to my own father’s advice. I wish I had, but I didn’t, and I’ve paid a price for it.”

Naoto looked at her grandfather nervously, and she was not sure what she could say. She wanted to say something, but she could not bring herself to say anything.

Kenshin could see that he was making her granddaughter really nervous and he seemed to be getting his point across. He sighed as he told his granddaughter in a calm, caring voice, “You have to understand Naoto that I promised your parents that I would take care of you if anything happened to them. I swore on my honor that I would look out for their daughter, and I’ve done the best I can.”

Naoto sadly said, “I understand grandfather.”

Kenshin then told her, “When you get older, you will understand that maybe there will be times when things may not be so simple. However, I will want you to follow the rules and heed the advice others give you.” He could see that his granddaughter was listening to his every word as he said, “On top of that, you also need to be honest with others because if you are not honest, no one will believe you and you will not be able to build trust between anyone. If you don’t have anyone’s trust, it will be difficult for you to accomplish anything in the real world. Do you understand?”

Even though Naoto was intelligent and mature for a girl her age, she was still a child. There were still plenty of things that she could not completely grasp about the real world. She hesitantly replied, “…I think so.” The unease in her voice was noticeable.

After hearing his granddaughter’s response he rubbed his eyes for a moment as he thought, “Sometimes I forget that I’m speaking to a child. It has been a long time since my son grew up. I need to get used to that again.” He adjusted his glasses and gave her a soft smile as he decided to change the subject. He asked in a curious manner, “So what books did you decide to read from my shelf this time?”

Naoto was not sure if she should really answer that. She knew her grandfather was a kind man, but he was stern. She was not sure if his lecture was over or if this was meant to be some kind of continuation of what he was saying.

When it became clear his granddaughter was a little too nervous to reply, he assured her, “It’s okay Naoto. I’ve said what I needed to say. Now I’m just curious about what you were reading.”

Naoto could tell that her grandfather was being truthful which caused her face to brighten up. She enthusiastically told him, “I’m reading Sherlock Holmes. He just figured out the mystery of who committed the murder.”

Her grandfather asked, “Did you figure it out before Sherlock did?”

Naoto nodded her head as she proudly replied, “Yep! I figured it out over a chapter ago. All I had to do was pay attention to the clues.”

Kenshin seemed pleased with what his granddaughter said as he said with pride, “That’s my girl. If you keep this up, you might have what it takes to become a detective.”

Naoto’s eyes widened as she asked, “Really?”

Kenshin playfully replied, “Of course. If you want to, I can start training you next week after I’ve created a few exercises for you.”

Naoto was becoming more excited by the second as she asked, “Do you really mean that grandfather?”

Kenshin told her, “I’m an honest, honorable man who keeps his word. You can expect to start your training next week after school on Monday.”

Naoto quickly got up and hugged her grandfather’s neck as she said, “Thank you grandfather! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

Her enthusiasm towards this subject reminded Kenshin of how her father reacted when Kenshin told his son that he could begin his own training. He patted his daughter’s back as he thought, “She is definitely my son’s daughter!” A small tear came down his eye that he quickly wiped away before Naoto was finished hugging him.

Kenshin and Naoto both stood up and he told her, “As I’ve told you Naoto, I’m being honest with you, and I will keep my word. I expect you to do the same for me.”

Naoto replied, “I will.”

Kenshin told her in a serious tone, “Before we get started, you need to promise to promise me Naoto that you will listen to what I say and heed my advice.”

Her grandfather’s tone did not cause Naoto to become nervous this time. She was too happy to mind that. Naoto cheerfully told her grandfather without hesitation, “I promise.” 

Hearing his granddaughter quickly make that promise was satisfying. It caused Kenshin to put a smile on his face as he said, “Okay then. In that case, there is a saying that our family has passed down for generations. It is a saying that I want you to repeat.”

Naoto asked curiously, “What is it?”

“The saying goes like this.” Kenshin took a deep breath and looked his granddaughter in the eyes before he began reciting the saying of the Shirogane family, “‘When things become dire, always look for the light at the end of the tunnel because there is always a way to solve and overcome what we are facing.’” He looked down at Naoto as he asked, “Can you repeat that?”

Naoto attempted to repeat what she heard, “When things become dire, always look for … always look for the light at end of the tunnel because … because,” her voice trailed off before looking towards her grandfather with a defeated look.

Kenshin smiled as he thought, “It is amazing that she can figure out the case from a Sherlock novel, but she is having trouble reciting the family mantra. However, I know she is not the only member of the house that had trouble with memorizing that.” He comforted his granddaughter by telling her, “I forgot what the saying was the first time I tried saying it too. Your father had trouble as well. You will get it eventually.”

Naoto looked at her grandfather with a determined look as she said, “I will.”

The look of determination that Naoto would give her grandfather was something that gave her grandfather assurance that his granddaughter would see her training to the end. He saw his son give him that same look when he began his training. It was as if he was seeing his son again through his granddaughter.

Kenshin continued smiling as he told her, “I have no doubt.”

///

Date: Fall 2002  
Location: Hiroshima

A young elementary school student with short brown hair and brown eyes by the name of Hanamura Yosuke was walking home from school. It was just a normal day for him. He went to school, attended his afterschool activities, and he was just taking his usual route home. However, Yosuke would see something rather unusual on his way home. 

Before he reached his apartment complex, he saw a rather unusual sight. As he was walking, he saw two people kissing each other passionately in an alleyway. Yosuke had seen two people kiss like that before, but this time was different. It was not a man and woman who he saw kissing each other but two men.

As soon as he saw that, Yosuke thought, “What’s going on?” He was curious to get a better look, so he quickly hid behind a garbage can, so he would avoid getting caught.

When he hid behind the garbage can, he accidentally hit the can which made a noticeable sound. The sounds of the two men kissing each other suddenly stopped. Yosuke quickly kept his head down to prevent anyone from seeing him because he figured someone might have head it. 

No sooner had Yosuke hid himself behind the garage can, he heard one of the men ask, “Did you hear something?” 

The other man nonchalantly said, “It was probably just an animal hitting the garbage cans over there. There’s nothing to worry about.”

Despite his lover’s words, the alert man said, “I don’t know. I think we should …”

He was interrupted by his lover who said, “Don’t be like that. We don’t get to see each other that often. Let’s not ruin the moment.”

The suspicious man reluctantly said, “…Okay.”

Afterwards the two men resumed making out. Unbeknownst to the men, the young Yosuke veered his head from the garbage can to continue observing the phenomenon that he had stumbled upon. The two men were completely unaware they were being watched, and Yosuke eventually walked away from the area without them noticing.

As Yosuke walked home, he innocently thought to himself, “Is something like that supposed to happen? I should probably ask my father about this when I get home.”

///

Date: Fall 2002  
Location: Hanamura Residence

The Hanamura Residence was a relatively small apartment in the big city. However, Yosuke’s father told him they would be moving into a bigger home soon enough. Earlier this week, his parents had told him that in less than a year he would be a big brother, and he would have either a younger brother or sister. They would need more room for the additional member of the family. While Yosuke was excited about this news it did make him nervous about how exactly it was possible for him to have a little brother or sister.

The Hanamura family would be able to easily afford the new home thanks to the job of Yosuke’s father, Hanamura Shouta. He had a position within the megastore known as Junes that has been praised by its wide variety of products, cheap prices, and appealing/catchy commercials but criticized for driving family businesses into the ground, causing numerous people in competing businesses to lose their jobs, and possibly causing more harm than good to the economy. Hanamura Shouta had been climbing the corporate ladder slowly but surely. His hard work was already showing signs of paying off, and he was certain that one day he would be awarded with a management position.

As soon as Yosuke arrived home he called out, “I’m home.”

The only other person that was home was his father who was reading a newspaper while sitting on the couch. Yosuke’s mother, Hanamura Mei, was out shopping at the time, so it was only the men. He looked up from his newspaper and commented, “You’re home a little later than usual. Did something happen?”

When his father asked him, Yosuke’s thoughts immediately went towards what he witnessed back at the alleyway. Yosuke hesitantly answered, “Something kind of happened.”

His father put down his newspaper and asked his son, “What happened?”

While Yosuke was curious about asking his father a question about where babies come from, his curiosity of that topic was overpowered by the scene he had just witnessed. He asked, “Can I ask you something dad?”

Shouta asked his son in a concerned voice, “What's wrong son? Did something happen to you?” He motioned for Yosuke to sit next to him on the couch.

After Yosuke sat on the couch, he shook his head as he said, “No. It was something I saw.”

Shouta questioned, “What did you see Yosuke?”

Yosuke was not really sure how to phrase the question. “Well I saw …. It was kind of like …” He tried to tell his father what he saw but he was not sure what he should say.

After seeing the struggle that Yosuke was having to find the right words, he assured his son, “Take your time Yosuke. However, if you are having trouble coming up with the right thing to say, just say the first thing that comes to your mind.” 

Yosuke decided to take his father’s advice and asked him the first question he thought of. “Dad, can two men kiss each other?”

“…. What?” A shocked Shouta was not sure if he heard his son correctly. “Did you just ask me if two men can kiss each other?”

“Hm.” Yosuke nodded and explained, “I saw two men kissing in an alleyway, and I was wondering if …”

Before he could finish that sentence, his father told him in a voice filled with anger, “Absolutely not! That is completely unacceptable behavior!”

Yosuke was both surprised and fearful of his father’s reaction. He was not sure when the last time he had seen his father this angry. The thought that came through Yosuke’s head were, “Did I do something to make my dad angry at me? What did I do?”

Seeing that he was frightening his son, Shouta lightened up his tone as he tried telling his son, “I’m sorry Yosuke. I’m not angry at you. It’s just that people like that make me so furious. It sometimes causes me to overreact.”

Yosuke’s eased up a little after hearing his father’s reassurance as he asked, “You’re really not angry at me?”

Shouta assured his son, “No. No I’m not.”

Yosuke decided to ask his father, “Why is it wrong for two men to kiss each other?”

“It’s not just when it is two men. It is wrong for two women to kiss also.” Shouta was a little hesitant to explain this to his son, but he did the best he could, “What they do it is … it is just not normal. What you have to remember is that men and women belong together not a man and a man or a woman and a woman.”

While Yosuke could understand that this whole thing bothered his father, he was still not exactly sure why it was ‘wrong.’ He asked in an innocent tone, “Why is it not normal?”

His father let out a sigh as he told his son, “You will understand when you are older.”

“Oh.” Yosuke replied in a disappointed tone.

Shouta tried to remain calm as he said to his son, “Yosuke, I never want to see you doing anything like that. You have to promise me that you will never be like those men. You are my only son, and I would not want you to become like them. Do you promise me that you won’t become one of them?”

After hearing his father tell him that, Yosuke made a resolution to himself that, “I’ll have to make sure that I’m never like those men. I think that would make dad really angry at me.”

Yosuke told his father, “Okay dad. I promise.”

His father was relieved to hear his son make that promise without any hesitation. The only thing he could say in response was, “Good.” However, he knew there was always a possibility that his son might break that promise later on. As his son looked at him innocently, he was thinking, “If I ever find out you’ve become one of … one of them. I’ll kick you out of this house faster than you can say Junes.”

After hearing his father’s explanation on why men kissing other men and women kissing other women was bad, Yosuke was curious about something else that was on his mind. Yosuke believed that since his father answered one of his questions, he was hoping that his father might be willing to answer another.

Following a few moments of silence, Yosuke asked, “Can I ask you something else?”

His father reluctantly replied, “What do you want to know?” While he was saying that, his mind was thinking, “I wonder what it is this time. I hope it won’t be as unpleasant as the other question he asked me.”

Yosuke innocently said, “You and mom said that I would be having a new baby brother or sister before next year. I was wondering where do babies come from?”

As soon as Yosuke asked that question, Shouta thought, “I just had to think about that topic. I need to dodge this bullet.” Instead of answering Yosuke’s question he decided to pass the buck when he told his son, “Uh…ask your mother.”

///

Date: Fall 2002  
Location: Tokyo – Kujikawa Household

For the past few weeks, whenever Rise would return home, she would usually feel down in the dumps because of how she was treated by bullies and be constantly reminded of how she had no friends. However, today was different. A girl named Narukami stood up for her in the face of all that bullying and sent them running. Rise remembered how brave and strong Narukami was. Rise was in awe of her. Even though Rise barely knew this girl, she was Rise’s hero.

This was the first time in a while, Rise was in high spirits. As soon as she entered the car she told her parents all about what happened. She boasted in a proud voice how Narukami was her friend now. While Rise’s parents seemed a little taken aback by Narukami’s actions, they did seem to appreciate the fact someone helped their daughter.

After they got home, Rise was so happy that she needed to tell someone else about Narukami other than her parents. It did not take Rise long for someone else to come to her mind. Rise happily thought to herself, “I know who I should tell this too. Grandma would definitely love to hear about this.”

Shortly after arriving home, Rise asked her mom, “Hey mom! Can I call grandma? I want to tell her about Narukami-san.”

Her mother answered, “I don’t see why not.”

Rise immediately moved towards the nearest phone and began dialing the numbers. She hoped that her grandmother would answer.

///

Date: Fall 2002  
Location: Inaba – Marukyu Tofu

Rise’s paternal grandmother, Kujikawa Sakoto, lived in Inaba and was the proud owner of a Tofu shop, Marukyu Tofu, which operated in the Shopping District. Her shop was located down the street from the Tatsumi Textile Shop, and the family were regular customers in her shop. Similar to a number of other stores in the area, it was a family owned business that had been passed down for generations through her side of the family. 

The name of the store, Marukyu Tofu, was based on Sakoto’s maiden name. Unfortunately, unlike the Amagi Inn or the Tatsumi Textile Shop, Sakoto feared the Tofu shop might end with her. It was unknown whether or not Sakoto would pass it down to her son or if he was even interested. However, Sakoto knew that Rise was a possibility, but she would not try to pressure her granddaughter.

Sakoto and Rise shared a close relationship with each other. Rise loved visiting her grandmother during the summer vacation and Rise loved eating her grandmother’s tofu. Rise believed that her grandmother was the ‘Tofu Master’ because no one else was as good at making tofu as Sakoto. Besides her grandmother’s shop, Rise really liked the town of Inaba and how peaceful it was. There were times when Rise would dream about possibly living there someday. It would be a dream come true for her.

Throughout the year, Rise and Sakoto would regularly call each other several times a month. They would always tell each other the details of what was happening in their lives since the last time they spoke. This time Rise would have a lot to speak to her grandmother about.

Sakoto was getting ready to close up shop when she heard the phone ring. She thought, “Could it be an order?”

As soon as Sakoto picked up the phone, she heard the cheerful voice of her granddaughter, “Hey Grandma! It’s me Rise!”

Hearing her granddaughter’s voice put a smile on Sakoto’s face as she replied, “Hello Rise. You sound great today.” Sakoto thought, “I’m glad she seems happy again. Things weren’t going to well for her last time we talked.”

Rise excitedly told her grandmother, “You will never believe what happened to me today.”

Sakoto asked, “What happened Rise-chan?”

Rise happily said, “I made a new friend.”

With that remark, Sakoto could just envision Rise’s smile as she replied, “Really? That’s wonderful. How did you meet her?”

Rise gave her the short version, “She saved me from some bullies and she gave me an origami crane.”

Sakoto eyes widened in surprise for a moment before smiling again. While Sakoto was concerned about the ‘bully’ issue since her granddaughter had told her about it a few times before, she decided to focus more on the good news she received. However, she wanted to hear more details. She told her, “I’m glad to hear that, but can you tell me more about her?”

Rise happily went into the details of how she was being bullied and how a girl named Narukami helped her. After hearing the more detailed version Sakoto happily told her granddaughter, “This Narukami-san sounds like a wonderful person. I’m so happy that you met someone who helped you.”

Sakoto could hear Rise giggling on the other side of the phone as she said, “Narukami-san also told me about how if I make a wish to the origami crane, it would make my wish come true.”

This caused Sakoto to laugh a little as well when she commented, “Your friend is pretty knowledgeable about origami. That is what origami cranes are supposed to be capable of. Do you know what you want to wish for?”

Sakoto’s question caused Rise to pause and think about it for a moment. “Hmm. I haven’t really thought about it.”

That reply did not surprise Sakoto as she mused, “I guess you were too excited to think about making wishes.”

Rise sheepishly replied, “I guess so.”

Sakoto decided that it would be important to ask her granddaughter, “After you make your wish Rise-chan, do you plan on throwing away the origami crane?”

“No. Of course not.” The response Rise made it clear that she would never dream of throwing away the origami crane that her new friend gave her.

Sakoto replied, “Good. You should cherish that origami swan. Keep it as a memento of your first meeting with your friend. I still have many mementos of friends I made in my youth, and I’ve always treasured them. They are great reminders of how I became friends with them. It would be good if you do the same.”

Rise said in an enthusiastic tone, “That sounds like a good idea. I need to make sure to give something Narukami-san would like too.”

Sakoto continued to smile at her granddaughter’s words as she told her, “I was hoping you would say that. I’m sure your friend will appreciate it.”

Before they could continue their conversation, Rise heard her mother call her over, and Rise had to tell her grandmother, “Sorry Grandma, but mom is calling me. I’ll call you again soon.”

Sakoto replied, “I’ll be looking forward to it.”

///

After saying goodbye to her grandmother, Rise hung up the phone. She heard her mother call for her again and she said, “I’ll be there in a minute mom.”

Rise then eyed the origami crane that Narukami had given her. She thought about what her grandmother said and had an idea. Rise walked over to the origami crane and picked it up. As she held it close to her she thought, “I want to become someone who can have more friends like Narukami-san.”

As soon as Rise made that wish, something felt strange about her body. After the feeling passed, she believed it was some kind of sensation caused by her wish. She thought, “I wonder if that means my wish will come true.”

Rise carefully placed the origami crane back on the table. She would decide how she would preserve the origami crane later that night. The last thing she wanted was to let the first gift that her new friend had given her be damaged or lost.

///

Date: Fall 2002 – A few days after Rei and Rise’s meeting  
Location: Tokyo – Narukami Household

Shortly after Rei’s parents finally picked her up, she was told that they would be moving. Her father was promoted in the company, and they would be moving to Kyoto. Her mother would be transferring from the job she was currently working for, so the transition would be seamless. Apparently, they had been planning this move for over a month, and they only told Rei about this now. They told her to start packing her things.

If Rei would have been told this a week or two earlier, she would have been more interested in moving. However, her thoughts went back to the red haired girl that she sort of befriended. That girl was the first one to compliment Rei on her hair and call Rei a friend. Rei wanted to be able to see if the two of them really could become friends. However, that was not going to be a possibility now.

Rei was in the living room with her parents as she complained, “Why do we have to move? I’m finally starting to make friends here.”

Both her parents were sitting on the couch with her mother rubbing her head and her father on his laptop. Instead of giving her an answer, Rei’s father glared at her as she scolded Rei, “Be quiet Rei. You’re mother has a headache after the day she had and I’m a little too busy with the preparations.”

Rei frowned as she looked down and thought, “I just asked a question. Why can’t they just give me an answer without getting angry?”

Her mother stated in a stern voice, “You’re father has a wonderful opportunity because of this promotion. Instead of being selfish, you should be happy for him.”

Rei refused to look in her parents’ direction as she solemnly stated, “Yes mother.” Neither one of her parents seemed to notice that Rei was averting her gaze from them. 

After replying to her mother, Rei ran back to her room and neither one of her parents seemed too concerned about how their daughter felt, and they just continued with their business. As far as they were concerned, this was their normal interaction with their daughter, and they did not see any problem with it.

While Rei was starting to pack her things, her true thoughts were, “It’s always about them. They never ask me about what I want, and they never spend time with me. They don’t even seem to like having me around. Do they even care about be?” Her inner thoughts became angrier and angrier as she continued, “They expect me to be quiet and obey like a good little girl. That’s what I’m always supposed to do. I wish I lived with Kujikawa’s family. She seemed happy to see her mom pick her up. I can’t remember when I was happy to see my parents.”

All these thoughts were building some pent-up rage within Rei’s body and mind. Both her hands slowly formed into fists and her finger nails dug so deeply into her skin almost threatened to cause them to begin bleeding. Similar to when she hit the boy in the back of the head with a stick, Rei suddenly had a violent urge to break something. Unlike that situation, Rei knew that she could not get away with doing something like that here, so she had to repress the anger as best as she could. She continued holding her hands into fists until she started to cool off a little.

Within a week, Rei and her parents had left Tokyo behind. Her parents were able to take care of the school transfer from Tokyo to Kyoto without any problems. Even though it was unusual for students to transfer in the middle of a semester, it was not unheard of. After Rei left Tokyo, it did not take long before rumors of the ‘Silver Haired Freak’s’ departure began spreading throughout her old Elementary School.

///

Date: Fall 2002 – Two weeks after Rise and Rei’s first meeting  
Location: Tokyo – Elementary School

After Rei beat up Kenta and his two subordinates, they did not try to bully Rise again. She was grateful that was one less problem she had to worry about. However, even though her time at school was becoming more peaceful, it still did not feel whole to her. Rise had this feeling in her stomach that something was missing and she knew exactly what it was. She wanted to spend more time with the person who helped her, but that person was nowhere to be seen.

News of Rei’s departure did not come to Rise’s attention right away. For over a week, Rise had been trying to find her new friend, but she did not have much success waiting around for her after school. She did ask a teacher or two if they knew a student named Narukami, but they did not have an answer. Eventually, Rise remembered one of her classmates mentioning that the ‘Silver Haired Freak’ was supposed to be a year older than them. As a result, Rise decided to pay the next floor a visit during lunch.

While she was checking out the classrooms, one of the doors were open, so she let herself in. She saw that there were lots of students gathered together eating lunch together. It felt intimidating to Rise to even approach them. This caused Rise to involuntarily make a gulping sound when she attempted to calm herself down.

Rise told herself, “I’m here to find out where Narukami-san. I need to ask someone.”

It took a few more moments, but she finally gathered enough courage to walk up to one of the groups. When they saw her approach, one of the kids rudely asked, “What do you want?”

Rise nervously asked, “Well I’m … I’m looking for someone.”

One of the more polite students of the group asked, “Who are you looking for?”

Rise felt slightly more at ease when she asked, “I’m looking for someone named Narukami.”

The students at first did not seem to realize who Rise was talking about until one of them asked, “Isn’t that the name of the girl with silver hair?”

Rise excitedly replied, “Yes that’s her. Have you seen her?”

The students looked at each other before telling Rise, “She was transferred out of this school the other day.”

As soon as she heard that, the hopeful look that Rise had slowly altered to one of disbelief. She had trouble comprehending what she just heard. She asked, “What?”

One of the students replied, “She moved. She won’t be coming back to this school again.”

Rise’s voice changed from being the sound of disbelief to becoming somewhat desperate as she asked, “Why did she move? Where did she move?”

One of the students replied, “It had something to do with her family and that’s it. Were you her friend?”

“Yes. Yes I was.” She then turned around and began walking away.

As she was walking away, she heard one of the students say, “I never would have thought the silver haired freak had any friends.” That student must have thought Rise could not hear what they were saying, but she heard that.

Hearing this caused the blood in her body to begin boiling. It caused Rise to turn around and told them, “She wasn’t a freak! She was a good person, so shut up!” She then ran out of the classroom and down the stairs.

It did not take long for Rise to find out what those students told her was true because someone else told her the same thing. However, they did not tell her where Narukami was transferred to, so there was no way that Rise would be able to contact her.

When Rise was alone outside after school, she sadly thought, “Narukami-san is gone? Why did this have to happen?” She was becoming more depressed as she thought, “I know we only just met, but she seemed like someone I really could have become friends with. I would have wanted to know more about her.” Rise thought, “I guess this is just my luck.”

The only thing Rise could do was cry a little over the friend she barely knew but still helped her so much despite being strangers. All she could do was contemplate how things could have been if she met Narukami much earlier. The thoughts of the two of them playing with each other at the park or on the beach crossed Rise’s head. Rise also figured if they had known each other longer, Rise would have known Narukami’s contact information and that she was moving. The she probably would have found out how to contact Narukami after she moved. All these thoughts raced through Rise’s head. She knew that as much as she would have wanted to change things, she could not.

Rise looked up into the sky as she sadly said out loud to herself, “I hope you are okay Narukami-san. I wish I knew more about you. Goodbye.” 

As if a response to what she said, the wind began to blow again. Suddenly, Rise saw something come loose from a nearby tree. When she saw it fall to the ground, Rise recognized it as the hat that Narukami was wearing. She remembered that when Rei was fighting, it fell off her head and blew away. It must have gotten stuck in that tree.

Rise smiled as she ran over to retrieve the hat. For some reason, looking at this hat gave Rise a new found sense of hope when she said, “I guess I have a new reason to see you again Narukami-san. I need to return what belongs to you. I’ll hold onto it until then.” Even though in her heart, Rise knew that the chances of seeing her mysterious friend were low, she took the hat as a sign that maybe their paths would cross again someday. Only time would tell if Rise would be right.

///

Omake:

Rei: Hello and welcome everyone to Knowledgeseeker66’s new story, “Into the Fog.” This is our post chapter content segment.

Rise: During this segment, we will break the fourth wall along with making comments and/or lampshade things that happen in this chapter.

Rei: Let’s start with something that seems to be bothering Rise. You told me earlier you were troubled by something.

Rise: I’m a little bothered by something. I was wondering do you think some of our characters are a little ‘advanced’ for seven or eight year olds.

Rei: What do you mean?

Rise: I mean do you think they might seem older than children under ten.

Rei: You do raise a good question, but I do not think that is too much of an issue. After all, there are plenty of fictional works that depict children characters as being smart and strong in their own way beyond the years you would expect them to be. Sometimes it is justified because the environment of the game’s setting forces them to grow up in.

Rise: Could you give an example?

Rei: There are two pretty good examples. Look at Nanako from the canon Persona 4 game or Clementine in the Walking Dead Video game. They are both beloved child characters because they are smart and strong for little kids while also acting in ways you would expect children to act because they do make a few mistakes a child would make or they show some believable naïveté.

Rise: That’s a good point. The author did give our child counterparts a few lines and actions that did make it clear we were still not mature yet.

Rei: Not to mention, the author has seen quite a few kids act differently than you would expect the usual child under ten would act. So it was kind of based on a mixture of fictional and real world examples.

Rise: I guess when you put it like that it seems okay. Child scenes help set up future plotlines and character developments for the main characters of this story.

Rei: Exactly. That is exactly what the author is trying to do. It is good to establish at least a few things early so we can avoid story problems later on. (Turns to the audience) Anyway, thank you for reading the first chapter. We hope you enjoyed it and will leave us some feedback.

Rise: We would really appreciate it, and we hope you will check out future chapters as well.

Rei and Rise: See you later.


	2. The Year Before

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Before Rei's journey can begin, she encounters the heroes of another story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author Notes: This chapter will primarily take place during the year or so before the events of Persona 4. Similar to the previous chapter, this is meant to expand the world of Persona 4 even further and provide more establishment and foreshadowing for certain character personalities and storylines. In this story, I plan on making more use of the different characters’ pasts. For those of you who have read my other story, “The Kirita Chronicles,” I like to make use of flashbacks to expand upon different characters.
> 
> Before you begin reading this chapter, there are a few things for you to keep in mind. For example, certain ways Japan does High School differs from how it is done in North America or Europe. In Japan, there are only three years of High School while it is four years in most Western schools. However, eighteen years old is still the general age when High School Students on either side of the globe graduate. As a result, when Rei is fifteen years old, she is still in Middle school.
> 
> I hope you will enjoy reading this chapter and will provide a review.

Into The Fog  
Story Arc One: Setting Things into Motion – Part Two  
Chapter Two: The Year Before

///

Before we all met

We all had separate lives

They shaped who we are

///

Date: Wednesday, November 18th, 2009  
Location: Kyoto – Kyoto – Shunkō-in Temple 

Narukami Rei was fifteen years old and in her third year of middle school. She was blessed and cursed with unique grey, silver hair. During her elementary school years, Rei’s hair earned her the nickname, ‘Silver Haired Freak,’ much to her dismay. However, after listening to a little girl Rei helped one time call her hair pretty and that she should grow it out more, Rei decided to take the girl’s suggestion. Rei started growing her hair that day, and she eventually grew it to the point that her hair nearly reached her waist. She also had two long bangs that went past her cheeks. While she wore most of her hair out straight, she liked to tie some of her hair into two separate braids that she wore out at the front of her body.

Prior to her family moving to Kyoto, Rei had lived in Tokyo. She had no luck making friends. She hoped the girl she helped would be her friend, but her hopes were dashed because shortly afterwards, Rei’s parents told her they would be moving to Kyoto. When Rei questioned her parents about it, they told her not be selfish and be happy for her parents’ improving careers. She was told to go along with it. Rei regretted not being able to say goodbye to the girl she helped, but she did not have her contact information.

When Rei moved to Kyoto, she hoped that this could be a fresh start. While her situation did improve a little, Rei’s life did not get much easier. While no one openly insulted Rei at school about her hair like they did in elementary school, she still had a hard time fitting in at school. Ever since she moved to Kyoto, Rei was still an outsider in school, but she was successful at becoming friends with a few people. They were outsiders like herself. Unfortunately, a few of those friendships did not end very well for her. The circumstances for how they ended were generally out of her control, but they still greatly affected Rei. She would rarely talk about what happened because she believed there was no one she could talk to about them.

In addition to her hair, she had a pair of two beautiful blue eyes. When she smiled with her cherry red lips, she would have a rather cute appearance that could easily lower people’s guards. However, when she is pissed, her eyes would glare right through you and her frown would be more than enough to tell you she means business. Underneath her clothes, she was developing a rather well tone body that was in great shape. However, her body was also normally covered in bandages and bruises because of the numerous fights that she would get into to. Getting into fights with bullies became a habit for Rei as she grew older. Similar to when she was a child, Rei almost always carried a first aid kit in her school bag in case she needed it.

Besides getting in shape, Rei also enjoyed expanding her mind. The places Rei loved to go to the most after her school activities were over were either the library or the temples in Kyoto. At first they served as a distraction to keep her away from her parent’s apartment a little longer, but she grew to love going to these places. It became difficult for Rei to consider not going to these places as a regular activity for her when she was not over at someone else’s house to work on a group project. She believed if this was removed from her life, it would create a void.

The location she arrived at now was the Kyoto temple, Shunkō-in. This was a Zen Buddhist temple that belonged to the Myoshin-ji school, Temple of Excellent Mind. Myoshin-ji was the largest of the fourteen Japanese Rinzai Zen Buddhist schools. The temple houses significant historical objects that reflect that reflected the multifaceted religious and artistic atmosphere in Japan from the sixteenth century to the present.

When Rei entered the temple, she was still wearing her school uniform along with her trademark pair of modesty shorts underneath her skirt, and she carried a rather large backpack. Most people would assume she is carrying a lot of school books. While Rei did carry school books, she carried much more than that. There were times when Rei was worried that her school bag would explode because of everything she put in it. She would not want to explain to other people what the contents were.

As Rei walked through the temple, she could not help but marvel at it. She thought in an excited tone, “No matter how many times I come to see this place, I never get tired of it. I mean how can I get bored of this place?” There were not too many people in the temple at the time since a number of people were attending a nearby festival. It seemed as if she had the place to herself.

While Rei was marveling at the temple, she heard some rather noisy people enter the temple that distracted her. Rei turned around to see seven people had entered the temple. From their appearance, Rei guessed they were probably in High School. They were most likely High School students on a field trip to Kyoto and the temple was one of the places they decided to visit. 

Rei sighed as she shook her head and thought, “Of all times, why did people like this need to come here?”

She heard one of them say, “Man, why do we have to go to a boring temple anyway?”

When Rei heard that, it caused her to become a little pissed off as she thought, “Boring? This is a historic place. How dare he call this place is boring!”

However, instead of saying anything out loud, Rei took a deep breath to calm herself down. She thought, “Never mind. Forget that guy. He is probably just an idiot. I came here to visit this temple and that is what I’m going to do. I won’t let someone else ruin it for me.”

Rei was able to calm down and focus on her own visit. She was able to phase out what that loud, annoying boy was saying. A little while later when she visited the temple’s garden, she was so focused on what she was looking at she did not hear someone was approaching her from behind. Suddenly, she felt something hit her from behind which caused her to fall to the ground face first. Her head and leg took a really nasty hit when she hit the ground.

///

As Rei suspected, the students who were visiting the temple were high school students. There were all students of the famous Gekkoukan High School located on Tatsumi Port Island in the city of Iwatodai. They were on their school trip to Kyoto and they had some free time to do some exploring of their own. This group had five second year students and two third year students. The second year students were identified as Arisato Minako, Iori Junpei, Takeba Yukari, Yamagishi Fuuka, and Aigis and the third year students were Kirijo Mitsuru and Sanada Akihiko. 

“Man, why do we have to go to a boring temple anyway?” Junpei Iori complained as he looked back at his friends. He was the young man with the goatee and baseball cap.

A tall red headed woman sternly told him, “Iori-kun, you might feel better if you stopped complaining. Kyoto has a rich history which includes temples such as these.” The girl who was speaking was Kirijo Mitsuru, who was the heiress of the Kirijo Group.

Junpei replied in an annoyed voice, “Easy for you to say, Kirijo-senpai. You and Minako love studying together learning about this kind of crap. We all know how Minako especially loves to …”

Minako snapped at him with a blush on her face, “Shut up Junpei!”

Junpei replied, “Oh come on Minako. We all know …”

Minako repeated what she said, “I said shut up Junpei!”

Junpei shrugged as she said, “Okay then!” He began walking away from the main group as he said, “At least, we get to go into the hot springs later, so today’s not going to be total loss.”

Little did Junpei know, he was leaving behind a rather ticked off Minako who was cracking her knuckles as she said to friend with brown hair who was wearing pink, “I swear Yukari. One of these days, I’m going to kill him.”

The one she referred to as Yukari was amused by her friend’s comment as she responded, “Mind if I help?” Her brown eyes seemed to sparkle when she said that.

In a playful voice, Minako told Yukari, “He’s all yours Yukari-san.” The both of them laughed a little before their blond haired friend joined the conversation.

Their friend with blond hair stated, “I shall also provide assistance if you require it.” The delivery of her words sounded rather robotic. It would be difficult to tell if she was kidding or being serious.

Minako told her friend in a somewhat nervous tone, “Thanks but we don’t need that much help Aigis. If you helped, it would be overkill.”

Aigis nodded her head as she responded, “Understood. I will not get involved.” Aigis then looked around the temple and said, “I will explore the perimeter.” She then walked away from the main group as well but not too far away.

Minako thought in relief, “That was a close one. I was almost afraid Aigis would actually do something.” She then turned to the rest of the group, “Let’s check out the temple. I’m sure we can learn quite a lot here.”

One of her other friends, Akihiko replied, “Well they do say firsthand experience is the best.”

Minako replied in a dry tone, “I’m pretty certain this is different from the firsthand experience you’re referring to Akihiko-senpai.”

Akihiko shrugged his shoulders as he casually asked, “It still applies doesn’t it?”

Minako thought about it for a moment before agreeing, “Well that’s true. Anyway, let’s go.”

As they walked into the temple their blue haired friend who went by the name Fuuka stated, “It is a shame Ryuji-kun didn’t come with us.”

Junpei sarcastically remarked, “Yeah a real shame.” Junpei mused, “Wherever he went, I probably should have gone with him.”

Minako was becoming more irritated at her friend as she stated, “Shut up Junpei.” It did get Junpei to shut up for a while but not long enough.

After spending sometime in the temple and listening to one of the tour guides, the group decided to check out the temple at their own pace, and they visited the temple’s garden. The garden was known as ‘Sazareishi-no-niwa’ which translates to ‘The Garden of Bolders.’ It was the main garden of Shunkō-in, and the main theme of the garden of the Ise Shrine, which is the head shrine of all Shintō shrines in Japan.

While most people would enjoy the scenery, Junpei, seemed to be losing patience with this place. He said in an irritated voice, “There is nothing to do in this place.” He put his hands over the back of his head and began to walk backwards without checking to see if anyone was behind him as he complained, “I wish there was something else we could do.”

Minako was becoming rather annoyed by his antics as she angrily told him, “Will you just be quiet? Didn’t you listen to anything the tour guide said earlier? There is a lot of interesting stuff here if you just pay attention.”

Junpei replied in a bored tone, “Well you say that but …” He did not get to finish his sentence.

One of his friends, Fuuka, noticed that he was going to back up into a girl. The blue haired girl called out, “Junpei-Kun, look out!” Fuuka’s warning was a second too late, as Junpei backed right into the silver haired girl. When Junpei backed into the girl, it caused the girl to take a step forward and trip on one of the stepping stones on the ground. She then fell to the ground face first and hit her head.

///

The rest of the group stood silently in shock after seeing what Junpei had just done. His lack of consideration managed to get one of the local residents injured. The girl that Junpei hit into was Narukami Rei, and she was both injured and pissed.

“What was that for?!” The younger girl snapped, glaring up at Junpei with her clear blue eyes. The glare in her eyes frightened Junpei as he instinctively took a step back. Rei angrily asked, “Well? Aren’t you going to say anything?”

Junpei attempted to nervously reply, “Well I’m …” The only other girls who could get him this nervous were some of the girls in his group. Something about this girl and her ferocity caught him off guard. It looked as if this girl was about to kick his ass if he pissed her off anymore.

Rei interrupted him as she pushed herself up from the ground and scowled at him. He stopped talking as she asked, “Can’t you watch where you’re going? You could have …” Rei then noticed that this student was not alone. She could see they were the group of High School students she saw enter the temple earlier. Now it was her turn to be nervous as she stared at this group of people who were not only older than her, but had her heavily outnumbered, “Uh …” A part of Rei thought that she should just walk away from this group and get away.

Before Rei could make a decision, she heard one of the girl’s ask, “Are you okay?” The girl was Yukari, and she moved over to Rei’s side to see if she was okay. When Rei did not answer right away, Yukari glared over at Junpei before looking back at Rei and said to her in an apologetic tone, “I’m really sorry that Stupei ran into you.”

Rei muttered in an embarrassed tone, “I’m okay.”

Junpei noticed how mellow the girl has become in the span of less than sixty seconds. He was surprised by the sudden change. He thought, “A minute ago this girl looked like she was ready to bite my head off. Now she’s like a completely different person. Is there something wrong with her? What could …?”

He was unable to finish that thought before Yukari walked over to him and forced him to bow his head in apology. She politely said to Rei as she held Junpei’s head down, “I’m sure Stupei here wishes to apologize as well.” She looked towards Junpei and asked him in a hostile and tense tone, “Right?”

After Junpei realized what Yukari was making him do, he apologized to the girl, “I’m sorry.”

“Its okay. I’m …” While Rei was beginning her sentence, she suddenly felt a warm sensation on her forehead and her left leg felt strange as well. She touched her forehead with her right hand and when she looked at her hand, she could see her fingertips were covered in red.

The red haired member of the group, Mitsuru, who had mostly kept to herself, said in a concerned voice, “You're bleeding.” Rei was bleeding from both the scraps her head and left leg received after Junpei knocked her over. Mitsuru looked over at the blue haired girl, Fuuka, and asked? “Fuuka-San, you have a first aid kit don't you?” She sounded commanding, and gave her a calm, measured look.

“Yeah, just give me a second.” Fuuka replied, swinging her bag off her shoulder and digging through it.

Rei politely told them, “No I have a first aid kit of my own. You don’t need to help me. I’ll take care of it myself.”

Fuuka asked, “Are you sure I’m …?”

Rei did not let Fuuka finish her statement as she said, “That won’t be necessary. I’ll be fine. I’ve taken care of worse scraps than this.”

Yukari was still not convinced as she asked, “Are you sure you don’t want our …?”

While Rei tried to keep her voice calm and respectful, she replied with a more forceful tone as she interrupted Yukari, “No I will be fine. I’m just going to go into the rest room and take care of this myself.” Rei quickly walked away from the group and made her way to the bathroom. 

Minako and Yukari followed Rei into the bathroom to make sure she would be okay. Rei told them that she did not need their help. Rei proved to be pretty good at addressing her minor wounds. She cleaned the cuts, and the bandages she put on her forehead and left leg stopped the bleeding. The two High School girls were impressed by Rei’s ability to take care of herself. 

After Rei exited the bathroom with Minako and Yukari, they wanted to give themselves a more proper introduction. Their group now included a strange blond haired girl, Aigis, who had finished ‘scouting the perimeter.’

“I’m Takeba Yukari.” Yukari told the younger girl with a smile. “What's your name?” She asked, looking curious.

Rei was rather reluctant to tell them her name, but she decided to answer the older girl’s question, “… It’s Narukami Rei.” She replied, giving Yukari an unsure smile. Yukari then introduced Rei to the other members of her group with the exception of telling Rei that the person she called Stupei earlier was actually named Junpei.

After the introductions were finished, Rei said, “So I was right. You people are on a school trip. You’re High School students right?”

“That was a pretty good guess.” Minako asked, “How did you know that?”

“Well I kind of figured you guys were older than me just by looking at you. I also heard you all enter the temple earlier, especially your friend here.” Rei motioned towards Junpei, and she bluntly stated, “You’re friend Stupei here doesn’t seem to appreciate the historical value of this place. Anyone who lives in Kyoto would understand how important this place is.”

Everyone seemed amused by Rei’s remark towards Junpei, except for Junpei himself. He asked her in an annoyed voice, “Did you just call me Stupei?” Apparently, Junpei was more offended by Rei calling him Stupei rather than her pointing out his lack of ability to appreciate the historic value of places.

Rei innocently asked, “That’s your name isn’t? I heard your friend call you that after you hit into me.” It was hard to tell if she was being serious about her comment or if she was messing around with him.

When Junpei heard himself being called that by Yukari, he did not mind it since he was used to it. However, he seemed to take a greater offense to hearing a stranger calling that as he asked in an annoyed tone, “What? That’s not my name. It’ Junpei.”

“Oh I’m sorry.” Rei sheepishly responded, “I really thought your name was Stupei. That’s all your friend was calling you.”

Almost everyone in the group, except for Junpei and Mitsuru seemed to laugh at that remark. All Junpei could do was look dumbstruck. He did not know what he could say to respond to that last statement.

Yukari remarked, “It really should be. Believe it or not, knocking you over is actually one of the lesser dumb things he’s done this year.”

Junpei was getting more annoyed as he retorted, “Oh shut up!” 

Yukari stated, “Well it’s true.”

Junpei replied, “That’s not the point. You don’t have to tell her that.”

While Yukari and Junpei were having their banter, Minako asked Akihiko and Fuuka, “Should we try stopping them from making a scene?”

Akihiko replied in a disinterested tone, “I think it’s too late for that.”

Fuuka seemed more concerned about this situation. “Well it would probably be a good idea to stop it from getting any worse.”

Aigis interjected, “Indeed. The possibility of a worker asking us to leave will increase if something is not done within a minute.”

Before Minako did anything, she looked towards Mitsuru to see if she would do anything. Normally, Mitsuru was good at controlling these situations, but Minako’s senpai was not her regular capable self after the incident earlier this month. She was understandably downtrodden, and she had little interest in taking any authoritative position. 

Minako sighed as she said, “All right then. I guess I’ll need to step in.” Before Minako could try to get her friends to stop talking, someone else was able to beat her to the punch.

After listening to Junpei and Yukari talk like that to each other, Rei butted by giving off a loud commanding voice, “Excuse me!” 

Junpei and Yukari stopped talking when they heard Rei, and she said in a calm voice, “Could you please stop that? This is a temple after all.”

Both of them sheepishly apologized for their actions. The other members of the group were impressed that Rei took control of the situation. Minako thought, “She beat me to it. She did it without any hesitation with force while remaining calm.” Minako scratched her chin as she considered these qualities. “I wonder if she might have what it takes to be a leader.”

When things were calmer, Rei bluntly asked Junpei and Yukari, “Are you guys supposed to be friends? I thought you were, but you kind of don’t sound like it to me.”

Neither of them were expecting Rei to ask a question like that. When they think about it, neither of them really seem to act like friends. The only reasons why they interact as much as they did was due to them getting stuck in the same classes as each other and ending up needing to live in the same dorm. While they were friendlier to each other than before, it was far from an ‘ideal’ friendship.

Junpei was at a loss for words. “Well um …”

Yukari did not have an answer either. “It is kind of a weird story.”

Before Rei could ask anything else, Minako touched Rei’s shoulder to get her attention. Minako explained, “Their friendship isn’t exactly the normal kind. However, sometimes friends call each other strange nicknames as a term of endearment. Junpei is used to Yukari calling him Stupei while Yukari is used to Junpei calling her Yuka-tan.”

Rei thought about what Minako was saying before coming to her own conclusion. “Are you saying that they are fine with each other calling themselves those names but hearing someone else using that nickname can be ‘offensive’?”

Minako answered, “Something like that.”

“I see.” Rei laughed as she turned back to face Yukari and Junpei. “You guys must be really good friends if you can make fun of each other like that. Right?”

Yukari scratched her head as she answered, “… I guess.”

“Probably.” Junpei decided that he wanted to change the subject. “Anyway, you mentioned that I didn’t know the historic value of this place right?”

Rei did not bother trying to deny it. “Yes.” She then asked, “I bet you don’t even understand the significance of this garden do you?”

Junpei answered, “It’s called the Garden of Boulders right?”

Rei did not seem impressed as she asked in a deadpan voice, “You read the name off the sign didn’t you?”

“…” Junpei did not answer, but the look on his face told Rei what she wanted to know.

Rei explained, “The garden’s main theme is the Ise Shrine, which is the head shrine for all of Japan’s Shintō shrines. This garden honors the Shinto deities Amaterasu-ōmikami, the sun goddess, and Toyouke-no-ōmikami, the goddess of agriculture.”

Junpei seemed fairly interested in listening to what Rei was telling him. Apparently, learning this information from a young girl appealed to him more. He asked, “Wait a minute. Aren’t there items here related to the Buddhist faith too?”

Rei answered, “Yes they are. Until the Meiji period which took place during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, it was not unusual for Buddhist and Shintō objects to be enshrined in the same place in Japan. This was due to the common belief that Shintō deities are various forms of the Buddha that existed to save people.”

Fuuka was amazed by Rei’s knowledge of the temple. “Wow Narukami-san. Do you work here as a tour guide for the temple?

Rei casually replied, “No. I’ve just come here a lot, so I know pretty much everything there is to know about the temple.”

Junpei decided to challenge Rei’s statement. “Oh really? Who built this temple?”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Rei answered the question, “This temple was established by Horio Yoshiharu in 1590. Horio Yoshiharu was the daimyo of Matsue which is located in the present-day Shimane Prefecture.”

While Mitsuru had mostly remained quiet, she was willing to give a complement to someone who earned it. “That is pretty impressive that you remember that.”

Rei replied, “I try to remember as much as I can about places like this. For instance, did you know a unique feature about this temple involves provides same-sex marriages?”

Minako seemed interested in what Rei said as she questioned, “Did you say this place allows ‘same-sex marriages’?”

Rei proudly replied, “That’s right. Gay men and lesbians and lesbians are able to have wedding ceremonies here without a problem. This is a place that doesn’t care about your orientation.”

A thought came to Minako’s head as she replied in a blush, “You don’t say.”

This caused Rei to actually go off on another tangent as she asked in an excited tone, “Did you know that during feudal times that same-sex romance was actually encouraged?”

Akihiko seemed somewhat interested as he replied, “Yeah. I heard about that.”

Junpei weakly said, “… Yeah I knew that too.” He was desperately attempting to make himself sound smart.

Yukari was quick to dismiss that, “You wish Stupei.”

Junpei weakly replied with a, “Shut up!”

While they were talking, Rei noticed that the girl with the long red hair named Mitsuru looked like she was about to say something, but she decided to not to. Rei noticed that movement, and she figured that this high school student had something to say, but she decided not to say anything at the last second. Rei thought, “I wonder if there’s anything wrong with her. Did something happen?”

Rei was brought out of her thoughts as she heard Junpei say, “Well anyway it appears I underestimated you Narukami-chan. I really learned a lot from you just now. You’re way more interesting to listen to.” He tried to say this in a flirtatious voice.

When Rei heard Junpei way this to her, Rei thought, “There is something different in the tone of his voice. I don’t really know how to describe it.” Rei said with a slight blush on her face, “Thank you. I’m glad you wanted to listen to me. I …” Suddenly one of the other things Junpei said to Rei a few moments ago dawned on her. “Wait a minute. Did you just call me Narukami-chan?”

Junpei responded, “Yes I did.”

Rei asked in a bewildered voice, “Why would you call me that?”

“You are younger than us for one reason. Another reason is due to how cute you are. Not to mention how beautiful that silver hair is.” As Junpei was saying this, his friend Yukari narrowed her eyes as she looked at him suspiciously.

It was difficult for Rei to think of a response to that other than saying, “Um … thank you.”

Junpei smiled as he replied, “No problem.”

Rei said out loud to herself, “Narukami-chan.” She then repeated it, “Narukami-chan.” As she said it to herself, she kind of liked the way it rolled off her tongue.

After hearing Rei repeat ‘Narukami-chan’ to herself, Junpei gave a sly look as he asked, “Would you rather me call you ‘Rei-chan’?”

Rei seemed a little embarrassed as she answered, “Not really.”

Junpei said, “Then I guess I will settle for Narukami-chan.”

In a curious voice, Rei asked, “Why do you want to call me ‘Narukami-chan’ in the first place?”

After Rei asked this, Junpei thought, “She definitely seems different than how she was before when she looked like she was about to chomp my head off. I guess there must be different sides to her personality.” Junpei responded, “Well I already mentioned that you being our junior and how cute your look.” He sounded more flirtatious as he said, “I think it would be just criminal if you didn’t have a cute honorific to go with your name.”

That compliment caused Rei to blush a little as she reluctantly agreed, “Okay fine.” A part of Rei liked the idea of being called Narukami-chan by this person, but she would not admit that.

Junpei complimented Rei, “Anyway, it seems like there is a lot more to you than meets the eyes. Underneath that cute face and that mysterious silver hair of yours, you seem to have brain that might rival Minako-chan and Kirijiro-senpai. You are probably the ace of your school aren’t you?” The other members of the group remained silent to see if Junpei was really going to go through with hitting on a middle school student.

Rei tried to sound modest as she told him, “Well I do get pretty good grades.”

Junpei told her with a grin, “Come on. There’s no need to be modest. I bet you are probably one of the best … No I take that back. I bet you are the best in your class.”

Rei was not used to hearing people other than teachers complementing her on her intellect as she put her finger though her hair and tried to avert her eyes from Junpei as she replied, “Well … I did get the highest in my tests.”

Junpei was not surprised in the least. “See. I knew it.” He then took it a step forward as he said, “I bet your boyfriend is a real lucky guy.”

“Boyfriend?” Rei was not sure what to say other than what her instincts were telling her, “I don’t have a boyfriend!”

Junpei seemed interested in this as he said, “That’s surprising to hear. You seem like you would be a real catch between that strong personality of yours and how cute you are.”

Rei responded, “Thanks, but I don’t really want a boyfriend. I’m not looking for one.”

“That’s such a shame.” A part of Junpei really was surprised by Rei’s statement. “Maybe you would …” He would not have a chance to finish that sentence.

Yuarki had enough of this and decided to put an end to Junpei’s shameful behavior. “That’s enough Stupei! Don’t tell me you’re really trying to hit on a middle school student!”

Junpei was completely derailed by Yukari as he nervously responded, “Um…”

“Hit on me?” Rei asked Junpei, “Were you flirting with me? Were you going to ask me on a date?” Rei had apparently been completely oblivious to Junpei’s intentions when he was talking to her.

Junpei and the other members of the group seemed surprised by Rei’s obliviousness. After getting over the initial surprised Junpei replied, “Well um … I was going to ask if you knew any good ramen places around here.”

Rei politely responded, “There are plenty of good ramen places in Kyoto, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to decline your invitation.” She bluntly told him, “I’m afraid I’m not interested in going out with you.”

“…” Junpei’s jaw dropped after being rejected by Rei.

Yukari laughed at this display as she told Junpei, “That’s what you get for trying to hit on a middle school student.” Yukari turned her attention back to Rei as she thought, “I wouldn’t have expected her to be so blunt in rejecting him though. That was pretty unexpected.” 

At this point Rei was not sure what she should do. She felt rather awkward being around these people. They seemed okay for the most part, but she did notice a few of them were a little too quiet which made her feel uncomfortable. She thought, “I should probably leave. This could get a little too weird if I stay with them.” Rei began to move away as she said, “Well. It was nice seeing you. Enjoy the rest of your time in Kyoto.

Before Rei could move away, Yukari asked her, “Wait Rei. Do you want to hang out with us a little longer? We’d be glad to have you around.”

Rei looked at Yukari as she asked, “Would you really? I did kind of turn down your friend over there.” She motioned to Junpei who still seemed to be struck down by Rei’s rejection.

Minako spoke out, “I’m pretty certain he won’t mind too much. He’ll get over it. Anyway, we’d definitely like to talk to you some more.”

Rei was skeptical about whether she should really do that. “I don’t know.”

Minako looked back to the rest of the group and told them, “I’m sure everyone else would be happy to spend more time with you. Right guys.” Akihiko and Mitsuru did not seem to mind the idea. After Junpei recovered, he seemed to be okay with it.

Fuuka responded, “I would like to talk to you more.”

Aigis stated in her robotic tone, “Indeed. The information you told us about was rather interesting and ‘spot-on.’ Despite your younger age and not being one of the temple tour guides, you apparently know more than a majority of us know about this temple. Talking to you more would be ideal.”

Hearing that was pleasing for Rei even if what that Aigis girl said sounded a little weird. After thinking about it, Rei said, “Okay. I’m not really in a rush to go anywhere anyway.” 

Rei did not quite realize that saying that last sentence could be taken the wrong way. Luckily for her, the group of High School students were starting to get quickly used to her blunt honesty. They could also see that Rei did not mean it to be offensive. Rei quickly came to enjoy accompanying them. They seemed to be pretty good people, and they were interested in what she had to say.

After spending time with them, Rei learned that they were students from Gekkoukan High School. Apparently, they all lived in this exclusive dorm. Hearing all this made Rei feel a little jealous since she saw how close they all were despite some of the issues she saw them have. They also mentioned some of the other places that they had been to in Kyoto during their school trip, and Rei recommended some other temples that they should consider visiting. 

At least an hour passed before Rei figured that she should probably head back to her parent’s apartment. She told the group. “It was nice meeting you. Enjoy the rest of your trip.”

As she began leaving, Yukari called out to her, “Hey. Are you heading to the festival that is happening tomorrow?”

Rei asked, “You mean the Ebisu-san Matsuri festival?”

Yukari nodded, “Yeah. We plan on going to it tomorrow.”

Rei said, “Well I was thinking of going to it. I’ve gone to it a few other times these past few years.”

Yukari suggested, “If you don’t have anyone to go with, you can meet up with us if you want.”

Rei eyes opened wide when she heard Yukari make that suggestion. It had been a while since anyone had ever asked her to go with them to something. She asked in a skeptical tone, “You’d want me to come with you?”

Minako answered to Yukari, “We’d be happy to have you along. I think it would be a lot of fun don’t you think?”

“Hmm.” A part of Rei wanted to say yes, but she was not sure. “I’ll think about it.”

Minako told her, “We’ll be there at around seven. You can meet us by the main entrance if you want to join us.”

Rei merely replied, “Okay. I’ll definitely think about it. Anyway, enjoy the rest of your trip.”

///

After Rei left the group behind and she was no longer within earshot, Minako commented, “She seemed like a nice girl. A little brutally honest, but she seems like a good person.”

Fuuka was impressed by the girl’s vast knowledge. “Rei-san seemed to know a lot. I only knew about half of the things she talked about. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought she was a tour guide.”

Yukari stated, “What you knew Fuuka was still more than what Stupei knew.”

As usual, Junpei replied in his defensive, offended tone, “Hey. I knew ‘some’ of those things.”

Yukari skeptically asked, “Really?”

Junpei angrily questioned, “Does that really matter?”

Before Yukari could answer, Aigis interjected, “This maybe a bad time for me to bring this up, but it would appear that girl probably has the potential.” 

What Aigis said was enough to make Junpei and Yukari forget their current argument and everyone else was surprised by Aigis’ statement. In an almost shocked voice, Minako questioned, “The potential? You mean she might have the same power as us?”

Aigis answered in her robotic tone, “That is correct.”

Junpei seemed excited by this prospect as he asked, “Does this mean we might have another girl in our group?”

Yukari replied in a disgusted tone, “Will you shut up Stupei? She’s in middle school.”

“So what? Ken joined our group, and he’s still in elementary school.” When Junpei mentioned that, a few members of the group seemed to be in agreement that Junpei made a valid point.

Yukari countered with, “Yeah, but he lived close by. She lives here in Kyoto. Even if she does have the potential, we can’t just suddenly ask her to drop everything to come live at the dorm.”

Junpei replied in a disappointed tone as he scratched the back of his head, “I guess you’ve got a good point.”

Aigis seemed to ignore what was going on as she stated, “Additionally, the feeling that I received from Rei-san was not as strong as someone whose abilities are about to awaken. It is doubtful, she would be able to use …”

Minako cut off Aigis, “I think it would be better if we don’t talk about this out in the open.” Minako looked around to make sure no one else heard what they were talking about.

Aigis respected Minako’s suggestion and nodded. “Understood. I will refrain from speaking of this further until we are in a secure location.”

Minako smiled as she graciously replied, “Thank you.”

Mitsuru who had remained silent for a majority of this stated, “Regardless of whether this is the case or not, it is pointless for us to think about recruiting anyone new. The fighting is over. We accomplished nothing, and it was a failure. There’s no point in continuing anymore.” Mitsuru took her leave of the group and walked away.

Fuuka tried calling out to her, “Kirijro-senpai …”

When Fuuka tried to pursue Mitsuru, Minako touched her friend’s shoulder and told her, “Let her go Fuuka.”

Fuuka tried to protest. “But …”

Minako said, “Considering what happened to her father, I can’t blame Mitsuru-senpai for not caring about that anymore.” Minako voice was saddened as she told Fuuka, “We should try giving her some space for now.”

Akihiko replied, “I wish there was something we could do. I’ve known her the longest in this group, but even I have difficulty talking to her.”

Minako sighed as she replied, “I’ve talked to her a few times. She’s doing a little better, but it’s going to be a while before she’s fully recovered.”

Akihiko looked down as he stated in a rather depressing tone, “The pain of losing someone you care for is never something a person can overcome easily.” Anyone could tell he was talking from past experience.

Minako replied, “Yeah.”

Yukari told Minako, “I think I’ll try talking to her myself later. She might have an easier time talking to me.”

Junpei did not seem confident in that plan. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

Yukari replied, “I didn’t say it was a good idea, but I think I might be able to help her.”

Minako reluctantly said, “Well if you think what you have to say will work, go ahead. I’d like to see Mitsuru-senpai feel better.”

Yukari confidently responded, “You can count on me leader.” Minako smiled. She was not sure what Yukari was going to talk to Mitsuru about, but she did have a few things that they would be able to discuss. It was possible they might be able to connect on one of those issues.

///

Date: Wednesday, November 18th, 2009  
Location: Kyoto – Streets

Rei was slowly walking back to her parent’s apartment as she continued to think about the group of high school students she encountered back at the temple. She briefly smiled as she thought, “It was nice actually talking to someone for once at the Kyoto temple. It wasn’t just one person, but it was a whole group.”

As she continued to walk, she thought about the strange vibe they gave her, “They seemed okay, but there was something strange about those high school students. They seemed different to anyone else I met before. It wasn’t just the fact they were tourists. Something just seemed off for some reason.”

Unlike other high school students Rei encountered at the temple, there was something special about those seven individuals. She could not quite put her finger on it, but she felt there was something about these seven that stood apart from other nameless strangers she had seen in this temple before. She continued to ponder over it, “What was that sensation I felt? It almost felt like they were emitting some kind of ‘energy.’” If Rei believed in the supernatural, she would have thought it was a power.

After walking for a while, Rei dismissed it. “I guess it doesn’t really matter.” She happily thought, “They all seemed impressed by what I knew about the temple. They actually wanted to hear me talk about it. They were interested in what I had to say.” After a few moments, Rei then thought in a depressed tone, “Were they really impressed or were they just acting impressed? I have been tricked before.”

Before Rei could come to her own conclusion she heard a child’s voice say, “Please leave us alone.” Rei turned her attention to an alleyway she was walking by, and she saw some children pushed against a wall and surrounded by five bullies. All of them had what the Japanese would describe as ‘delinquent type hair’ and wore a number of earrings to add to their delinquent appearance.

One of the bullies had dyed his hair blonde, had two earrings in both his ears, and had brown eyes. He said in a rather nasty tone, “We’ll let you go after you hand over everything you’ve got. If you don’t, we’re going to have a problem.”

The other child pleaded, “But we need to get this home. Our mom needs this medicine. Please don’t take it. Let us go.”

Their words fell on deaf ears as the bullies did not seem interested in what the children had to say. The blonde bully reiterated his previous threat. “Just hand it over or we’ll take it from you.” The voice had a nasty tone as he said, “I’m sure you wouldn’t like it.” Based on how he sounded, it would be easy to assume he was the type of person who enjoyed seeing his victims resist because it was more fun. He wanted his victims to give him an excuse to get rough.

Rei looked around the area to see there did not appear to be anyone else to witness the situation besides her. The closest pedestrians were going by with their business without being any the wiser to the injustice that she noticed. They either did not hear what she was witnessing or they did not care. Rei also noticed there were no police officers anywhere to be seen, and she was not about to go looking to find one.

Seeing that no one else was there to do anything, Rei sighed as she scratched the back of her head and thought, “It seems like I’m the only one who pays attention to this stuff. Ah well here we go again.” She then grinned as she cracked her knuckles. “It seems like I either always run into trouble or trouble has a way of finding me. Either way, I’m sure this is going to be good.” 

The look in Rei’s eyes was hard to describe. A few moments earlier they appeared to be the eyes of someone innocent and kind. However, the look in them changed as they narrowed. One vague word that could be used to describe them would be ‘vicious.’ The look in her eyes along with the grin on her face gave off the appearance of someone who you would not want to cross paths with. This was not the same girl who spoke to those high school students earlier.

Rei quickly ran into the alleyway and hid behind one of the garbage cans and hid behind one of the walls so she could get a better look at what was happening while being able to remain hidden. After Rei was sure she would not be noticed, she reached in her school bag and she unzipped a section of it that was separate from the area she kept her books. She pulled out a mask as well as a hoodie that she put on as quickly as she could because she knew every second counted. While Rei wanted to help the kids, she knew that she could not get involved before she was ready. 

For what she was about to do, the fewer people who saw her ‘distinctive features’ the better. If she was not careful, she would be identified, and she could end up in a lot of trouble. She did not want to deal with the consequences of that. After she had her mask and hoodie on, she placed her school bag to the side. She was sure that it was unlikely someone would want to steal it. That was a chance she was willing to take.

Instead of introducing herself in the normal way ‘heroes’ do it on television shows by announcing her presence to the bullies and demand them to ‘Leave those kids alone,’ she took a more direct approach. All five bullies were concentrated on tormenting the kids that they did not notice her quietly walking to them. When she was close enough, she tapped the closest one on the shoulder. This bully had a nose ring and had dyed his hair to be blue.

That was enough to get the bully’s attention. He said, “Huh?” as he looked over his shoulder. When he was looking at Rei, her fist was there to happily greet him. Her attack was enough to send him to the ground and blood was coming out of his nose like water from a faucet. Apparently, Rei might have knocked his nose ring out. She heard a ringing sound after she sent him to the ground.

All the other bullies were taken off guard by this attack as they looked at Rei and their friend in surprise. All of them said a mixture of, “What?” or “Huh?”

Due to Rei’s attack, this caused the bullies to become distracted enough that the kids they were picking on used this chance to run away. The blond haired bully noticed this as he attempted to stop the kids from escaping. He angrily stated, “Oh no you …”

Before he had a chance finish those words, he was interrupted by Rei kicking him in the stomach. He had been focused on trying to catch his prey that he failed to realize the new predator was the one he should have been concerned about. “Gah!” The kick he received caused him to feel wobbly before Rei kicked him a second time which sent him to the ground.

The remaining three were stunned by what they saw. However, there was not going to let their guard down like their blue and yellow haired friends did. Rei could see them get into some kind of ready position. Rei was not intimidated by this nor the fact she was outnumbered. Instead, she confidently asked, “Does anyone else want some?” Rei pounded her right fist into her left hand as she said, “I’ll be more than happy to oblige!” 

Her voice was noticeably deeper, darker, and more serious than when she was talking to the high school students in the temple. However, it was easy to tell that she was a girl. She was not attempting to hide her gender, but this voice change more or less represented a different side of her. It was side of Rei that she never revealed to the public. 

Throughout her life, Rei enjoyed fighting, but winning karate matches in clubs did not feel satisfying enough for Rei. After she received a sense of enjoyment and satisfaction in taking down the bullies who were tormenting the girl in Tokyo, it gave her a taste for blood. Rei wondered if she would have the same satisfaction if she did it to some other bullies. Over the past few years, Rei had faced a few opportunities to stop bullies from tormenting the few friends she was able to make, and she enjoyed giving the bullies their comeuppance. Doing this not only made her feel alive, but it helped make her feel ‘necessary.’ It helped validate her existence, and she was enjoyed every minute of it.

One day Rei ran into a similar situation she was facing and decided to intervene. As far as Rei could tell, it did not matter if the bully was tormenting a friend of hers or a stranger. She would feel the satisfaction of helping someone in need along with the enjoyment of making the bully face her own sense of justice. She made sure to hurt the bullies so badly that she was sure that they would never think about continuing such behavior in the future.

In her core, Rei enjoyed a good fight but she especially enjoyed fighting bullies and saving the victims. She knew these actions did not make her a ‘hero,’ but she did not care. She enjoyed hurting the bullies to give them a taste of the helpless their victims felt as long as she knew that she would probably not get in trouble for it. While she did want to teach bullies a lesson and help their victims, she not stupid enough to do something like that too openly otherwise she might get in as much trouble as her targets. Rei would take precautions when she would intervene, such as wearing a mask and a hoodie to hide her face and hair. 

Underneath her mask, Rei was smiling because she knew that these bullies would want to fight her. Her hand motion told the bullies to, ‘Bring it on!’

The kids she helped escape looked back. The boy said, “Thank you we are …”

Without turning around to look at the children, Rei interrupted the kids, “Don’t thank me! Get out of here now! Don’t stop until you get back home to your mother!” While Rei said this, she keep her eyes at the bullies who were still standing. She would not take her eyes off her opponents and give them an opening to attack her.

This seemed to make the kids nervous as the boy nervously replied, “… But don’t you need …”

Rei did not hesitate to interrupt the kids again, “I don’t need help! Don’t waste time worrying about me! Just get home to your mother! She’s waiting for you right?!?”

The boy answered, “…Right!” Both of the kids began running to their home as fast as their legs could carry them. They would take Rei’s advice as they refused to stop until they were safely home. There would be no outside interference for this fight.

None of the bullies seemed interested in pursuing the kids after Rei knocked down their blonde friend. They seemed more interested in her now which is exactly what she wanted. However, none of them had tried approaching her yet. Rei noticed one of them seemed to want to rush me but the blue haired bully Rei knocked to the ground held his hand up. He seemed to be their leader and was telling them to stand down.

The blue haired bully that Rei knocked down could feel that something was wrong with his nose. He had not realized that his nose was bleeding yet. When he noticed that the bloody nose that Rei gave him was starting to stain his shirt, he quickly clinched his nose to stop the bleeding. He said in a pissed off tone, “What the hell did you do that for?”

Rei coldly replied, “Giving you what you deserve.”

The blue haired bully picked himself up while still clinching his nose as he sarcastically replied, “So you trying to be a hero?”

Rei answered, “Not in the least.”

The blue haired bully then replied, “Well in that case it looks like we got some wannabe cosplayer.” He then looked towards Rei and said to her in a sarcastic voice, “You’re a few weeks too late for Halloween. Go back to Amerikamura. You’ll find it back at Osaka.”

While the other members of the group seemed to get a good chuckle out of that Rei replied in a straight voice, “You wouldn’t be the first person to say something like that to me. Hearing you talk like that makes me look forward to how this will end.”

He then asked, “How do you think this will end?”

“With you and your friends on the ground and your head underneath my shoe as I force you to eat the cement.” The confidence in her voice made it clear she was stating it like it was a fact.

The blue haired bully was rather pissed by this remark as she said, “Who do you think you are? My name is Hayashi Izuru. I’m the leader of this little band, and I’m the toughest guy in Kyoto! You will show me respect!”

Rei sarcastically remarked, “Oh yeah. You’re so strong that you had your little buddy over there,” Rei motioned towards the blond haired man who was still on the ground, “hold a few kids against a wall while you watched. You’re real tough.”

As she was making these remarks, Izuru seemed like he wanted to interrupt her, but he could hear that his subordinates were laughing at her comments. They did not seem capable of arguing against what Rei was saying. Izuru was not sure what pissed him off more. Rei’s comments or the fact that his men were laughing at them. 

Izuru shouted, “Shut up! We need to teach this guy a lesson!”

One of the bullies who appeared to have a Regent Pompadour, which was a popular hairstyle for Japanese delinquents replied, “You know boss. I think I’ve heard about this guy.”

Izuru asked, “What are you talking about Akira?”

Akira responded, “I’ve heard a rumor about some guy that goes around wearing a mask and enjoys beating people up.”

Another member of their group who had a shaved head asked, “Isn’t that a girl’s voice though?”

Rei replied, “Well aren’t you an observant one.” She sarcastically stated, “You must be the brains of the bunch.”

Before the one with the shaven head could say anything, Akira replied, “Don’t give her the satisfaction Hikaru.” Akira appeared to be more equipped to be the leader than Izuru since he was far less hot blooded.

The last member of the group asked in utter disbelief, “Are you saying those guys were taken down by a girl? By this girl?”

Akira replied, “I’d assume so. Try not to let your guard down Kazuo otherwise you might end up like Rikuto over there.” Akira was referring to the blond haired bully that Rei knocked to the ground who was now getting up.

As soon as he regained his barring, the one referred to as Rikuto charged at Rei in revenge for her earlier kick and Hikaru followed suit.

Akira warned, “Wait!” However, it was too late for Rikuto and Hikaru. Izuru attempted to engage Rei as well, but Akira grabbed his arm and Kazue seemed to respect Akira’s words.

Rikuto tried to punch Rei, but she stepped aside and he hit nothing but air. She quickly retaliated with a quick kick below the belt. Rikuto gasped in shock, “GAH!” Rikuto fell to his knees while clutching his privates.

Before Rei could finish off Rikuto, Hikaru attempted to attack her with a kick of his own. Unfortunately, while his kick was strong, his attack was too high, and he left himself wide open to a counterattack. Rei was easily able to duck underneath her opponent’s attack and kick his other foot which caused him to fall to the ground. Hitting the pavement caused Hikaru to become disoriented, and his vision became blurry. The last thing he saw was Rei’s shoe over his head before blacking out.

With one taken down, Rei immediately turned her attention back to Rikuto who was still hunched over in pain from her earlier attack. She did not want to take any chances of him getting back up to attack her. She swiftly kicked him in the face which knocked him unconscious. When Rei kicked him could see that she probably broke his nose as well because she saw blood began oozing out of it after he hit the ground.

Rei immediately turned her attention to the last three when she said, “So you three just stood there while I took down your friends? What were you trying to do gauge me or something?”

Akira replied, “Something like that.”

Rei stated, “Well here’s one other thing you can add to your analysis. Now there are only three of you, the odds are not in your favor. You’d be better off giving up now.”

Izuru responded, “As if I would ever want to let you go off that easily.”

“I’d figure you would say that.” Rei cracked her knuckles as she boasted, “So you really want to take me on? It will be your funeral.” Rei grinned underneath her mask. If they could see what she looked like under her mask, they would know she was really looking forward to what was about to happen next.

Izuru said, “We won’t be as easy as those two.”

Rei replied, “I hope not. Otherwise, this would be too boring.” As Rei began her fight with the other three, there continued to be no one nearby to notice this altercation.

Izuru, Akira, and Kazue all attacked Rei. Kazue was the first to attack, but Rei was able to dodge his punch. Similar to his friends, Kazue left his body exposed, so Rei was quickly counterattacked him with a kick to the stomach. It was enough to send him reeling, but she did not have enough time to finish him. 

Izuru tried to attack her as well, but she was able to jump out of the way. Before Rei could try attacking Izuru, Akira followed up on Izuru’s attack with a punch of his own. Unlike his other friends, Akira knew not to leave his body vulnerable to counterattack when he knew his opponent might be too fast to dodge his attacks.

Rei thought, “He noticed I’m the type of person to go for the counterattack rather than making the initial attack. He did seem like he was smarter than the others.”

Due to this being an alleyway, there was not a lot of room to move around, and it was easy to run into something. When Rei tried backing up, she went a little too close to the wall and ended up backing into another trash can. Before Rei had a chance to move away, Izuru took advantage of this. He jump kicked in Rei’s direction. Rei was not able to block the attack and ended it getting kicked into the trash can which caused garbage to be knocked onto the ground and Rei was knocked on her back.

Izuru tried to step on Rei, but she managed to recover enough to roll away. She used the moment of that roll to get in a position so she could get back on her feet again. Within a few seconds Rei was standing up again, but she could feel the side of her stomach was throbbing from the kick she received. Rei also noticed that left leg was bleeding again and her right arm might have been scraped from falling on the ground. However, she was not ready to give up fighting yet. 

Izuru smirked as he gloated, “Well it looks like you’re not that invincible after all.”

Rei put her hand on the wall behind her as she replied, “I never said I was, but I’m going to make sure you pay for this a hundred fold. That’s assuming you don’t give up now.”

Izuru did not bother wasting any words as he charged at her. He was getting annoyed by her words and did not want to listen anymore. When Izuru tried to attack Rei, she quickly dodged underneath his attack and ran past him before kicking him from behind, so he would end up running into the wall face first.

While Rei would have tried to finish Izuru off, Akira and the recovered Kazue attempted to attack Rei again which forced her to momentarily retreat. She was more careful about her surroundings as she backed away this time. Izuru backed away from the wall and began complaining about his face hurting from that last stunt, and Akira told him it was his own fault for getting baited by Rei much to Izuru’s chagrin.

Rei smiled under her mask as she thought, “Well this is certainly turning out to be interesting. I guess I won’t have to do anything to affect their ‘teamwork,’ but they are still the most skilled of the bunch. I have a feeling that Kazue will be the first to go down. Then it will only be a matter of whether it is the tough leader Izuru or the smart Akira that goes down first. I’m going to need to be careful about this though. Otherwise, this situation might turnaround on me, and they could end up winning.”

///

Date: Thursday, November 18th, 2009  
Location: Inaba

While Rei was busy fighting some bullies an old woman, Kujikawa Sakoto, was closing up her shop in Inaba. As she closed up, she received a call. She had a feeling she knew who it was. This person remembered the exact time Sakoto would usually be closing the shop, and she would wait until this moment to call.

After Sakoto picked up the phone, she said, “Hello Rise-chan or would you rather me call your ‘Risette’?” She said that last part in a teasing tone.

Rise responded in a slightly annoyed tone, “Please just call me Rise-chan grandma.”

Sakoto replied in amusement, “If you insist. How has your time being a ‘Teen Idol’ been treating you?”

Rise hesitated before answering, “… It’s been fine.”

Her grandmother noticed Rise’s hesitation, so she pressed further. “Has it really been fine for you Rise-chan?”

Rise replied, “Yes it’s been fine. It’s kind of hard to complain. More and more people know who I am, and they want to see me. I released a new album recently, and the first shipment sold out pretty quickly.”

“I heard.” Sakoto proudly stated, “I bought one of them for myself, and you did excellent work.”

Hearing her grandmother say that brightened Rise’s day. “Oh thank you grandma. I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

Sakoto happily replied, “I’m sure I will continue to enjoy it.”

“By the way, did you also say that you bought ‘one’ for yourself?” Rise emphasized the ‘one’ part. “Did you buy one or did you …?”

Sakoto interrupted her granddaughter, “I bought a few others, so I could offer it as an incentive for my customers to buy more tofu than usual. I figured your CD would sell out, so I made sure to pre-order more than one.” Sakoto stated in a cheerfully teasing tone, “My little marketing ploy worked wonders for me. I ran out of tofu rather fast.”

Rise was pleasantly surprised to hear her grandmother do that, but it also seemed fitting for her at the same time. “Oh grandma.”

Sakoto replied in a false innocent tone, “What? A number of people in Inaba know I’m your grandmother. I figured it would be a good idea to try something to help with business.” Sakoto chuckled a little as she said, “It turns out that I was right.”

“I don’t have a problem with that. In fact, I’m glad that my CDs were able to help you sell more tofu.” Rise suggested, “I can give you a few copies of my CD if you want.”

Sakoto happily answered, “That would be lovely. Thank you.”

Rise said, “No problem.”

For some reason, Sakoto remembered another matter that she wanted to ask her granddaughter about. “By the way, have any new bizarre incidents cancelled your shows?

Rise answered, “There haven’t been any more out of the blue cancellations since that show at Tatsumi Port. Everything has been running smoothly besides that little incident.”

Sakoto had been curious about what exactly happened on that day since it seemed like that club Rise was going to perform in was making a number of preparations, and they went through a lot of effort to keep her involvement in that unknown. She inquired further, “Have they ever told you why that show was cancelled?”

Rise replied in a disinterested tone, “Apparently, there was some kind of power outage, but they didn’t say what caused it or if there was some other kind of problem.” Rise’s tone changed when she said, “They told me that they’ll owe me a favor for cancelling my show. I’m going to make sure they pay me back in full.”

Sakoto seemed amused by this as she said, “I’m sure you will.” Sakoto then ask, “By the way, have you made any new friends Rise-chan?”

This was another topic that Rise was hesitant to talk about, but she tried to sound optimistic about it. “I think I might have. A lot more people want to know me because of this. It might not be long before I make a lot of friends.”

Sakoto was wishing that was true as she said, “I hope you do make a lot of friends. From my experience, you can make some of the most unexpected friends at places and times you never would have thought. Always keep your eyes open for that.”

When her grandmother said that, Rise looked at a little box she kept on her desk as she said on the phone, “I will grandma. I will.”

“That’s a good girl.” There was one more thing Sakoto wanted to ask her granddaughter about. “By the way, how has your studies been going?”

This was probably the subject that Rise wanted to talk about the least. “Uh! That’s a completely different story all together.” It was not one that Rise wanted to get into, but she had a feeling her grandmother was going to get her to talk about it one way or another.

///

Date: Thursday, November 18th, 2009  
Location: Kyoto Alleyway

“Huff … huff … huff,” Rei was breathing heavily as her hands were on her knees and her back was bent forward. She was doing the best she could to remain standing after what happened.

In front of her, Akira and Izuru were the last opponents left standing, and they was not doing any better. Izuru was barely standing and Akira was on one knee. Both of them seemed to be ready to give in and fall to the ground. However, they both used the remaining willpower they had to bring themselves to stand up straight. Rei managed to straighten herself up as well for the final stage of this fight.

Rei raised her voice as she asked, “Have you had enough or do you want some more?”

Despite being in pain, Izuru smirked as he said, “Are you sure you want to be asking me that? You look like you’re about drop dead.”

Akira followed up with saying, “I think you should surrender. If you do, we’ll let you off easy.”

Rei responded, “You’re not doing much better. If you give up now, I won’t shove both of your faces into the ground.”

Neither Akira nor Izuru seemed to be intimidated by Rei’s threat. Izuru asked in a mocking tone, “You really think you’re going to be the last one standing?”

Rei confidently replied, “I know I will be.”

As usual Izuru was the first to charge and Akira followed afterwards. However, due to Akira being more tired that Izuru, he was more sluggish and less capable of providing any follow up attacks. While Rei was getting sluggish too, she seemed to still have more stamina than either of her opponents. Ever since she was a child, she had been gifted with a great amount of stamina that helped her numerous times.

Izuru tried to create his earlier success by attempting to jump kick Rei. However, Rei was able to easily avoid it by stepping out of the way. When Izuru’s attack missed Rei, she immediately followed up with punching him at his side which caused him to cringe a little and caused his body to bend which mead his head an easier target. Rei wasted no time to punch Izuru on the side of the face. After getting punched, Izuru lost balance and ended up hitting face first into the alleyway wall again before falling back to the ground.

In the brief moment Izuru had before he lost consciousness, he thought, “Not again.”

Rei did not have the luxury of watching Izuru’s body fall to the ground because Akira attempted to attack Rei. Rei was able to block Akira’s punch. He quickly tried to follow up with another punch that Rei was able to dodge under. She managed to uppercut Akira and punch the bottom of his jaw. It was enough to stun Akira, but it was not enough to bring him down. However, Rei was not about to give Akira a chance to recover.

Before Akira could see what Rei was doing, he felt his left leg get hit by his opponent’s kick. He could feel the bone almost crack when she did this. It forced Akira to go down on his left knee again. When he looked up, he saw Rei’s fist coming right in his direction, and he was unable to avoid it. He felt Rei’s fist hit the left side of his face which forced his head to move to the right in a sudden jolt. The hit was so strong Akira could feel himself begin to blackout. As soon as his head hit the ground, the last thing he could see is Rei standing triumphantly in-front of him before his vision faded to black.

///

The fight was over. Rei felt like she had used almost all of her energy in that fight, but she was the last one left standing in that alleyway. All five bullies who were stealing from those children had been taken down and lying on the ground. Rei had won. She almost felt like crying out in triumph, but she did not want to take the chance of anyone nearby actually taking notice of that.

Suddenly Rei started feeling a pain at the side of her stomach again and tried to nurse it as she tried to stand up straight. As she rubbed the area she that was bothering her, she thought, “That was a bad hit. At least, he didn’t hit me in the face and break off my mask. That would have been really bad.”

Four of the five bullies were unconscious and the only sound that could be heard from them were groaning sounds. Rei noticed Izuru was attempting to get up. As soon as Rei saw that, her anger began to boil and she felt that she received a second wind. However, she seemed satisfied that now she could deliver what she promised this bully earlier.

Izuru managed to get onto his stomach as he tried to push himself up from the ground. However, his progress was impeded when he felt Rei’s shoe on his back and force him back on the ground. Izuru groaned, “Uhh!”

“Tch! Tch!” Rei triumphantly told the bully, “You really should have stayed down. Or rather you should have given up when I told you too.”

Izuru attempted to say, “You little …”

Rei interrupted him by taking her foot off his back and then putting it on his head to force it to the ground. When she did that it caused his nose to begin bleeding again like a running faucet. Rei told him, “I told you how this would end. I told you that I would force you to eat the ground. I live up to my promises.” Rei clearly seemed to be enjoying this.

After a few seconds of enjoying Izuru’s struggle, Rei noticed that he was beginning to have trouble breathing, and she realized she was going too far. She took her foot off his face. Rei stepped in front of him and kneed down as she prepared the coup de grâce. When Izuru looked in Rei’s direction, he was on the receiving end of the same finishing move as Akira. The only thing he saw was Rei’s fist connecting to his face. That was the last thing he saw before he was rendered unconscious along with his friends. 

With Izuru unconscious, Rei took a deep breath before gazing upon her work. After seeing the fruits of her labor, Rei could not help but smile as she brushed her hands and thought, “Another job well done.”

With a triumphant look on her face underneath her mask, Rei walked out of the alleyway and picked up her school page where she left it. When she was certain the coast was clear, she took off her mask and put it back in the bag, but she kept wearing her hoodie. Rei put her school bag over her shoulder, and she walked away while rubbing the side of her stomach with her left hand as she winced in pain for a few moments. 

As she walked away from the scene, Rei thought, “I still have one more thing to do.”

Rei knew the area pretty well, so she knew that a Green Phone was nearby. She would be able to use that public phone to call the police. When she saw the phone, Rei thought, “It’s time to make another anonymous tip and get the hell out of here.” When Rei approached the phone, she took out a pair of gloves from her bag before making the phone call.

This was not the first time that Rei had taken down bullies who were attempting to rob small children or pick on other helpless people. Whenever she would intervene, Rei would make sure all of them were down for the count. Afterwards she would then make an ‘anonymous’ tip to the police about some delinquents committing some less than savory acts. She would tell the police that she was witnessing some ‘man’ fighting them. 

Rei never stuck around to see if the police arrived in time to arrest any of the people she fought against. The last thing she needed was for the police to spot her and possibly put two and two together. She did not want to take the chance of getting a record. If she did, she was afraid of what might happen to her afterwards. As soon as Rei hung up the phone, she ran out of the immediate area. She continued running until she was sure that she put enough distance between herself and the scene of the crime before beginning to calmly walk again.

While a part of Rei did fear the idea that at least one of the people she beat up would attempt to give the police some kind of description of her, she was not too worried about it. Since she wore a mask and hood, her features were mostly hidden. Rei also relied on the fact that the bullies she beat up would be too ashamed they were beaten a female. Additionally, she hoped that if the bullies heard from the police officers that the anonymous tipper was saying ‘some man’ was fighting them, they would get the message and be smart enough to go along with it. Even if they tried saying they were fighting a girl, then that could easily be misinterpreted. While certain laws regarding assaulting women, were more outdated in Japan in comparison to other countries, it was still something that was serious and it would be a stupid idea to admit to it.

///

After making the phone call to notify the police, Rei quickly made her way to her parent’s apartment. It was starting to get late and she did not feel like stopping at any of the public bathhouses. Besides, if she stayed out too much longer, some people might start to question why a middle school student was still roaming the streets. While there were fewer people around on this out autumn day, there were still more than enough that might become suspicious. The last thing she needed was to run into anyone and get any unwanted attention. Instead of casually walking back like she usually would, Rei decided it would be better to jog.

As she was jogging, she could feel some slight pains in her body that slowed her down, but she kept pressing on. Rei felt that she could not afford to stop and had to keep pressing herself to move forward until she finally got to the apartment. Luckily, she did not run into any of the neighbors before she finally reached her family’s apartment. Rei was not in the mood for talking to anyone especially now.

As Rei slowly opened the door, she hesitantly said, “I’m back.”

There was no answer. The apartment was pitch black and there was not a single sound. Rei sighed as closed the door behind her and said to herself, “I can’t say I’m surprised.” Her body began to ache again, “Ouch.” 

She rubbed where she was hit in the stomach earlier and thought, “It’s probably for the best. It always has been after all.” Rei turned on the lights and locked the door. 

She immediately entered the bathroom inspect the damage that was done to her body. She put her bag down and took out her mini first aid kit. She then took off her clothes except for her undergarments and she saw that she had a few bruises and cuts from the fight. She had a cut on her right arm which was bleeding a little, there was a bruise on her left shoulder, there was a minor bruise on in her stomach area, and the cuts that Junpei inadvertently gave her on her forehead and left leg earlier widened a little.

When she saw the damage, she sighed as she thought, “It looks like this will take a little effort. Might as well put on a little music.”

Rei quickly took some clean clothes from her room, and she took out her music player she had in her backpack and switched it to a song sung by her favorite teen idol, Risette. It was one of the newest songs Risette had released. Hearing a song played by Risette always helped make things more enjoyable and go faster, including applying first aid. Rei thought, “This seems like a good song.” She sent her music player to speaker, so she would not need her headphones.

After she cleaned herself up in the bath, she began applying the first aid to herself, she caused herself to wince, “Ow!” Since there was no one around, she did not think there was any issue talking to herself. “Those bastards really got me good.” As she continued treating her injuries, she chuckled as she said, “At least I got them better.”

Even though Rei was young, she was surprising good at dressing her own wounds. She definitely did not have the skills of either a nurse or a doctor, but she was competent enough to take care of relatively minor injuries. She always tried to avoid going to any nurses or doctors because she would not want them asking her questions. However, even though she was good at covering her wounds with makeup, there were sometimes people who would notice her injuries and limps, but she was able to pass them off as being the result of clumsy behavior. She was better at convincing some people than others. If there was anyone skeptical, there was not much they could do without proof, so Rei was able to continue her life.

After spending sometime in the bathroom, Rei emerged cleaned up and bandaged wearing a new set of clothes. She then placed the clothes she was wearing into the wash. As the washer machine began working, Rei stretched out the right sleeve to cover one of the bandages. She knew she would need to be careful about sleeves tomorrow.

Rei thought to herself in relief, “It is good thing most of these wounds can be covered by my clothes. The only wounds that I won’t be able to cover is the ones on my forehead and leg when I have to wear my school uniform.” She then thought, “At least that injury was already caused by someone else. If I have to, I can always have someone at the temple back up my story.”

After she was done getting the laundry ready, Rei looked around her empty apartment again to see that there was no one else there other than her as usual. She even checked the answering machine, but it was empty as usual. She sighed as she said, “I guess I’ll be making dinner again tonight.”

While Rei normally enjoyed cooking, she wished there was someone else to eat her cooking or at the very least someone else who might be willing to cook a meal for her for a change. As she began cooking her dinner, Rei thought, “I’ve always wanted them to be here, but now it seems too normal to come back to an empty apartment. Would I really want them here now? It’s not like I’ve really had a lot of great moments with them.”

As she began eating her food, she could feel one of her wounds aching her. As she winced in pain, Rei thought, “Why did I do my whole ‘vigilante’ act again? I thought I wanted to stop doing that.” 

Rei then thought about the little kids she saved from those bullies as she then thought, “I guess I can’t really help it. I like helping people in trouble, but I really enjoy putting bullies in their place. It makes me feel happy and alive, but I think I might go too far sometimes. I almost made a guy choke on the ground an hour ago. I can’t keep going like this. I can’t live like this. I’m not some comic book superhero.” 

As if it was on cue, Rei put her hand on her stomach area to nurse the bruise again. “I can’t just keep getting injured and keep needing to apply first aid on myself. This is not how I should be living my life.”

Rei continued putting more food in her mouth as she looked at the empty chairs across from her. She thought, “Maybe if I had some parents who actually cared and are actually here, I might not think about living like this. I just want to be normal. I don’t want my normal life. I want the normal life other people have. I want to live a normal life with a normal family.” 

As Rei looked around her empty apartment she sighed as she said out loud, “That is never going to happen in a place like this.” She knew no one was there to hear her say this.

After Rei was finished eating, she thought back to what those high school students said to her. She thought, “Were those guys really serious about wanting to spend time with me? Why would they want to spend time with me? I’m just a middle school student. Don’t they have better things to do than want to spend time with someone like me?” She sighed as she thought, “I bet they were just playing a joke on me. They couldn’t have been serious. There’s no way they could have been.”

Rei continued to ponder this for a few more moments before thinking, “It’s not like I have anything better to do tomorrow night. Maybe I should take them on their invitation. Even if they aren’t serious, I’ll still enjoy the festival. I’ve been to it by myself plenty of times. If they are serious, at least I’ll be going with someone this time. Even if they are a bunch of strangers, it is better than being alone. Besides, beggars can’t be choosers.”

///

Date: Wednesday, November 18th, 2009  
Location: Kyoto – Hotel that Gekkoukan High School Students are staying

The seven high school students decided to hold a private meeting after encountering Rei at the temple. Aigis’ revelation that Rei might have the potential warranted a discussion. It was possible they could have a new ally, but conversely she could end up becoming an enemy like Strega. Since the Shunkō-in Temple was not the best place to talk, they decided to return to their hotel and discuss it there.

These seven students were far from being a regular group of students. They along with a few other members who remained in Tatsumi Port composed a group they called SEES which was an acronym for Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad. Officially, they were recognized as a club by the school, but their true purpose was to far different from what anyone would expect from a ‘club.’ Even if they told anyone the truth, most people would either dismiss them as crazy or students who enjoy fantasies.

As Yukari promised, she spoke with Mitsuru, and it seemed to work. Mitsuru seemed to be in slightly better spirts, and she was more willing to talk about the new situation. Minako felt a little jealous that Yukari was able to succeed where she failed.

After Mitsuru checked to make sure no one would be trying to listen in on their conversation, she asked Aigis, “Aigis does Narukami-san truly have the potential?”

Aigis replied in a robotic tone, “After encountering Rei-san, I was ninety percent certain she has the potential within her. In fact, when I encountered her, the potential power she gives off is similar to that of Minako-san.” Everyone seemed surprised to hear these words.

Minako was the most surprised by what she just heard, “What?” Minako thought, “Does that mean she has the Wild Card ability too and can enter the Velvet Room?”

Junpei seemed amazed by this when he asked, “Does that mean she might be able to control multiple Personas like Minako-chan can?”

Aigis answered, “It is possible, but I lack any certainty to confirm this. Assuming Rei-san truly has the potential, it is still dormant within her. Based on what I sensed, I do not believe it will remain that way for much longer.”

Mitsuru asked, “How long do you think it will be?”

Aigis answered, “I’m unable to give an accurate answer to that. I lack the ability to give an answer with a hundred percent certainty.”

Minako tried to encourage her friend, “Can you try to give us an estimate? I’d be fine with hearing that.”

“Understood.” Aigis remained silent for a moment. She seemed to be calculating the possibilities in her head. After she was finished, she responded, “It is possible it could take over a year possibly two, but I have no true way of estimating the Persona Awakening process for humans. There are a lot of factors to consider.” 

The other members of SEES seemed disappointed to hear this. Junpei replied in an exasperated tone, “Well that totally sucks.”

Fuuka was more curious than disappointed as she asked, “Do you mind explaining this more Aigis-san? After my Persona awakened, I’ve never really thought about how people’s Personas could be awakened.”

“Certainly.” Aigis explain, “There are different factors that are involved when it comes to awakening the power. As we’ve seen, it can happen naturally or artificially. The time it takes to develop naturally differs from person to person. Amada-san was able to develop his ability even though he is still an elementary school student because of the incident with his mother.” When Aigis made a reference to Amada Ken’s mother the other members of SEES grinded. “By my calculations, without any outside interference, Rei-san’s power will probably begin to manifest within two years. That is assuming she truly has that power, and I was not mistaken.”

Mitsuru replied in a disappointed tone, “I see.”

Minako tried to turn the conversation around by saying, “Regardless of how long it takes for Rei-san’s powers to awaken, I believe this could be a good thing in the long run. I don’t think Rei would be anything like Takaya or the other members of Strega. Even though we only met her once, I think she seemed like a good person.”

Mitsuru did not seem to be moved by this as she replied, “That isn’t really the concern I have about this matter.”

“Well shouldn’t it?” Minako said, “I mean we only met her a little ago, but she doesn’t strike me as the type of person who would abuse her power. She could eventually become a great ally to us. So what if it isn’t right now? Sometimes it is good to become friends with be for the sake of being friends. We shouldn’t become friends with people because we want them to be useful to us right then and there.”

Fuuka responded, “I agree. Even if it is a ways down the road, I think she could be helpful to us. We should try to keep our options open.”

Junpei joined in as he said, “I’m with Minako-chan and Fuuka-san. Narukami-chan seemed like a good girl. Having someone like her on the team would be great when she can join us, but I guess now isn’t the time for that.” His voice sounded disappointed as he said the last part.

Yukari said in a disgusted tone, “Speaking of which, I can’t believe you tried to pick up a middle school student.”

Junpei became defensive as he replied, “I wasn’t really trying to. Sure I was flirting with her a little, but I was serious that I thought she was cute. I was trying to be friendly, and I wasn’t going to break her heart or anything.”

Yukari replied in a deadpan voice, “You seemed pretty shocked that she rejected you. Your jaw looked like it was going to hit the floor.” Yukari seemed rather amused by that.

Junpei defensively retorted, “Shut up! Besides, even if she said she was interested, I wouldn’t have done anything more than buy her something.” Yukari looked at him skeptically as he said, “That’s it I swear.” Junpei’s mood became more solemn as he said, “Besides, I’m not really in the mood for dating right now anyway, especially after Chidori.”

Yukari seemed to understand where Junpei was coming from as she sadly said, “Yeah. Okay I get it.”

Aigis interjected as she said, “Regardless of your intentions Junpei-kun, Rei-san seemed to have difficulty knowing that you were attempting to flirt with her.”

“Yeah I kind of got that signal.” Junpei looked towards the group as he asked in a perplexed tone, “When Yuka-tan asked me if I was ‘hitting’ on her, she seemed to have a hard time understanding that I was flirting with her. I get that she is only in middle school, but she’s acting like no one ever flirted with her before. That’s really weird.”

Despite Aigis’ rather robotic way of talking, she asked in a curious voice, “Would most people understand that was what you were trying to do?”

Junpei replied, “Generally, yes.”

Akihiko said, “Yeah. I have my own little fan club at school. Even though I’m not interested in any of those girls, I know what they’re trying to do.”

This time it was Junpei’s turn to reply with a deadpan voice, “It didn’t always look like that to me.”

Akihiko replied, “I wizened up.”

Before anyone else could say anything, Mitsuru interjected, “I will admit that I find this troubling. If she was younger or if that was the only thing that was wrong, I would have passed it off as her being naïve. However, between that and everything else I noticed, I think there is more to this than that.”

Fuuka asked, “What do you mean Kirijiro-senpai?”

Mitsuru answered, “Besides Narukami-san’s lack of ability to understand Iori-san’s intentions, there was also the case of her having that first aid kit in her backpack and her unwillingness to accept help from us when she was treating the cut Iori-san gave her.” Junpei had a look of shame when Mitsuru mentioned that last part.

Fuuka did not seem too convinced by Mitsuru’s reasoning. “Well we are strangers, and we aren’t exactly nurses. I can’t really blame her for not wanting any of us to help her.”

Yukari admitted, “If I was her, I’m not sure if I would be so willing to accept help from strangers either. We didn’t exactly make the greatest first impression.”

Mitsuru explained, “The fact she was reluctant to accept help wasn’t the issue. It was the fact she carried around a first aid kit in the first place or she didn’t even consider asking any of the temple’s staff for help. Her first instinct was to go to the bathroom and address the wound herself.” The rest of the room remained silent as Mitsuru continued making her point, “It was as if she carried it around because she was expecting to get hurt, and it seemed as if she couldn’t bring herself to ask for help. It was like she doesn’t expect it.”

The other members of the SEES considered the points Mitsuru made for a few moments before Fuuka said, “When you think about it, it does seem strange. I wouldn’t really think about carrying a first aid kit with me in my bag unless you told me to bring one with us.” Fuuka asked, “Do you think this means she has problems at home?”

Mitsuru replied, “Yes. I think we can all take these things as signs that someone isn’t taking proper care of her.”

While Minako did not want to doubt her senpai’s wisdom, she did not want to jump the gun on this either. “You do make a few good points Mitsuru-senpai, but don’t you think it is a little too early to be drawing conclusions like that? I mean you might be right about this, but we can’t just assume anything. We only met her once.”

Akihiko stated, “I agree with Minako-san. The girl’s behavior was strange, but it isn’t enough to prove anything. We should try to know more about her.”

Mitsuru sighed as she reluctantly admitted, “You’re right, but I do believe there is a good chance I’m correct in my assumptions.”

Aigis responded, “Based on my analysis of what I observed, the likelihood Rei lives in a poor household is approximately seventy percent.” This statement elicited a few looks of concern from the other members of SEES.

Yukari asked, “Do you really think she is living in a bad house Aigis?” She was really hoping that was not the case. While Yukari did not necessarily live in a poor household, she did know how it felt to live in a place that did not feel like a home.

Aigis replied, “There are other possibilities for her behavior as well which does not involve poor parenting, so I cannot be completely certain.”

“I understand, but I think Mitsuru is probably right about this.” Yukari sadly brought up, “Rei-san didn’t seem to be in a hurry to leave the temple. She may have been a little uncomfortable being around us, but she did not seem eager to go home either. After she left, I did talk to one of the tour guides, and he said he has seen Rei there a lot. Apparently, she always came on her own, and he has never seen her with anyone else. I’m guessing that means she doesn’t visit that temple with her parents or possibly any temple for that matter.”

Akihiko still did not seem convinced as he stated, “That could be explained by her parents having busy jobs. I’m not saying you’re wrong or anything, but she could just have parents who are busy people.”

Mitsuru looked down for a moment when she replied, “Yes. That’s also possible.”

Minako could see that Mitsuru was becoming saddened by the mention of parents considering her recent loss, Minako replied, “Anyway, we can always worry about something like that later. We might get a chance to meet her tomorrow. We can try getting to know her better if she comes to the festival.”

Aigis replied, “That would be a logical solution. Afterwards, we can make a better assessment of Rei-san’s situation.”

Minako then said, “Besides that, we will be able to have fun too. It will be a nice change of pace for all of us. We can play all kinds of games and win prizes.”

Mitsuru seemed to understand what Minako was getting at as she replied, “Yes. I’m sure that it will be fun.”

The SEES continued talking for a while. The conversation was more pleasant and far less depressing. Considering what they had gone through in recent weeks, these individuals needed a break from it and the remainder of their time in Kyoto seemed like their chance to make things easier for the time being.

///

Date: Thursday, November 19th, 2009  
Location: Kyoto

After considering the options for a while, Rei decided to accept the invitation by the Gekkoukan High School students. The following day, she went straight back to her parent’s apartment after school. Rei looked through her closet to find the perfect outfit for the occasion. After going through her closet, she decided that her dragon styled kimino was the best choice. Her kimino had several dragons weaved onto its design, and it was colored in a mixture of red and black. Rei always felt that the dragon was a perfect symbol for her because she considered herself a fierce person.

While Rei was walking to the area where the festival would take place, Rei’s imagination began to run wild with thoughts of what it would be like to hang out with high school students. However, her imagination was cut off as soon as she was at the foot of the hill. As Rei trudged up the smooth stone steps towards the festival, Rei felt her stomach churn with worry. With each step Rei was closer to the festival. As she got closer, the more she had a hard time believing those Gekkoukan High School students would not keep their promise.

She thought the moment she was at the top that they would not be there. Rei thought that maybe they either told her they would come to the festival, so she would come to it by herself as some kind of joke, or they decided to change their minds at the last second to do something else with their time in Kyoto. If they did not show up, Rei would not blame them since she had a hard time comprehending why high school students would want to hang out with a scrawny middle school student like her. She did not believe she was anyone special who deserved their attention anyway. She barely even had her own parents’ attention.

When Rei finished walking up the steps, she saw the festival had started. She quickly looked around to see if those students were there. After looking for a few moments, she did not see them anywhere. Rei looked down to the ground in disappointment as she thought, “I figured this would happen.” She sighed as she said out loud, “I’m just a middle school student. Why should they care?” Although there were people around, Rei did not think that anyone would actually hear her say that.

In a disappointed tone, Rei said, “I guess I’ll just enjoy this festival on my own again.”

As Rei began walking to the festival, she heard a family voice call out to her. “Oh! Rei-chan! There you are!” Rei was startled and her eyes were wide open the moment she heard someone call out her name. She turned to where the voice was coming from and saw that the voice belonged to Yukari. She was accompanied by the other six students that Rei met at the temple yesterday.

When Rei saw they were all there, she thought in bewilderment, “They actually came? They were actually waiting for me? They were actually serious about wanting to spend time with me? Why?” Rei was having difficulty comprehending what she was seeing. As far as Rei was concerned, she was just ‘Rei.’ Aside from her hair color, she did not seem to be worth anyone else’s attention.

Yukari ran over to her and said, “I hoped you would show up. It’s good to see you again.”

Rei hesitantly replied, “It’s nice to meet you again too.”

Yukari complemented, “That’s a pretty lovely kimino. It looks cute on you.”

Rei replied in an embarrassed tone, “Um … Thank you.”

Yukari said in a disappointed tone, “This makes me wish we brought kiminos of our own. We wore yukatas at the summer festival that happened back home, but we didn’t think about getting any kiminos here.”

Rei smiled as she told Yukari, “If you’re interested, there are a lot of great places you can buy yukatas and kiminos. There are a few great specialty stores close by that could find you the perfect one.”

Yukari was appreciative of this as she replied, “Thank you. I would love to know the names of these stores.”

Rei reached into her kimino and pulled out a pen and piece of paper from one of the pockets. She quickly wrote down the names of the stores and handed it to Yukari. Rei said in a cheerful voice, “I think you might like these places.”

Yukari did not expect to receive this as she responded, “Thank you very much Rei-san. I will definitely keep these places in mind.” She thought, “One of these places is close to our hotel. We might have enough time to go visit that store tomorrow before taking the bullet train in the afternoon. I should tell the others about these places. I think they might like to get one or two.”

Rei warned, “Just be careful. Depending on their design, yukatas can cost at least 10,000 yen and kiminos can cost 30,000 yet.” The prices for those designs were approximately the equivalent of a hundred and three hundred U.S. dollars respectively.

Yukari was not surprised by this as she responded, “That doesn’t seem too bad. I’ve saved up a lot of money from some part-time jobs I work out, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Anyway, I think it will be worth it.” Rei pictured Yukari wearing a pink kimino. “I think you would look good in a kimino, especially a pink one.”

“I’ll definitely be sure to keep that in mind.” Yukari decided to change the subject, “Anyway, I’m glad you decided to come.”

Rei was still surprised that Yukari and the others were here as she replied, “Well I’ve come to the festival a few times before. It’s pretty nice.”

Yukari said, “I’m sure it is, but I bet you will enjoy it more hanging out with us.”

Rei hesitantly replied, “… I guess so. I think it might be nice.”

Yukari could sense something was wrong with Rei’s voice, so she questioned, “What’s wrong? You seem surprised to see us.”

Rei bluntly responded, “I am. I wasn’t sure you were really serious when you invited me to spend time with you.”

When Rei gave her reply, Yukari was taken aback a little. She thought, “I can see she isn’t afraid of being honest.” Yukari questioned, “Wait a minute. Did you think we just invited you to play a joke on you? Did you think we were those kind of people?”

“Kind of. After all, you are high school students, I’m only in middle school. Why would you want to spend time with me?” Rei had a habit of being a little more honest than she should be during some occasions while being good at lying at other times.

Yukari was rendered almost speechless by this, “Umm… Wow. You really thought we would do that to you. … You’re not kidding are you?”

Rei could see that she went a little too far with her honesty, so she respectfully bowed and said, “I’m sorry for thinking that. I truly am.” There was a hint of shame in Rei’s voice.

Yukari tried to assure Rei, “Umm … No! Don’t be sorry! I understand. If I were you, I would probably be skeptical of this scenario too.” 

Rei looked up and saw that Yukari really was not upset. She asked to make sure, “So you’re okay with me being suspicious.”

Yukari reassured the girl, “There’s no hard feelings.” She decided to quickly change the subject, “Anyway, the others are waiting for you.” Yukari looked back and Rei looked around Yukari to see the other members of her group eagerly awaiting the two of them to join the rest of the group.

Rei relied in a hesitant but cheerful voice, “Okay.”

As they made their way over to the group, Yukari said, “Just don’t tell everyone what you said to me okay. I’m not sure how well they would take it.”

Rei nodded, “Right.” While Rei walked, she felt a slight pain on her side. This caused her to have walk strangely for a moment before managing to overcome that pain and begin walking normally again.

After Yukari and Rei joined up with the main group, Junpei happily said, “I’m glad that you could make it Rei-chan.”

While Rei did not have too much of an issue with Junpei, she did seem too thrilled by him. She did her best to try to and give him a friendly replied, “It’s good to see you too.”

Junpei replied, “Anyway, I was hoping you would come here. I wanted to make up for hitting into you yesterday.”

Rei held her hands out and shook her head, “No! There is no need for that. Let’s just enjoy the festival. That’ll be enough.”

Fuuka said, “I hope we didn’t inconvenience you in some way.” She nervously asked, “You didn’t have anything else you wanted to do today right?”

Rei replied, “No. My only choices were either coming here or staying alone in my parents’ apartment.”

Aigis and Mitsuru picked up on what Rei said. Instead of saying ‘my apartment’ or ‘my home,’ she said ‘my parents’ apartment.’ Neither of them said anything about this at the moment and decided to let the moment play out. Aigis appeared to notice something else about Rei and looked her up and down. She did this without Rei noticing this since she was distracted talking to the other members of SEES.

“Yeah. Parents are boring anyway.” Junpei replied, sounding smug, “You probably wanted to use this opportunity to hang out with cool high schoolers like us.” Before Rei could say anything, Junpei said, “Hanging out with us will be much cooler. We’ll be sure to teach you how to do these kind of things when you get into high school.” Instead of trying to say anything to refute that, Rei decided to let it go. 

“Who’d want her to be influenced by you?” Yukari replied, sounding put off by Junpei’s behavior. “Maybe it would be better to keep this group smaller after all.”

“Oh come on!” Junpei replied in annoyed tone.

Yukari ignored Junpei looked over to Fuuka and Minako as she said, “How about we split the group in two? You want to be in my group Fuuka and Minako.”

Fuuka replied, “That sounds fine by me. Splitting up into a smaller group would make checking out this festival easier.”

“I think that sounds like a good idea too.” Minako looked towards the other members of their main group and said, “Would you be okay with this?”

Mitsuru said, “I’m fine with it.” Akihiko and Aigis did not have any objections either. The only member of the group who seemed to be in dismay about this divide was Junpei, but anything he had to say was going in one ear and out the other.

Rei was not really sure what to make of the situation until Yukari put her hand on Rei’s shoulder and asked, “You want to come with us Rei-san? We’ll make it a girl’s night playing some of those games and checking out the concession stands.”

Without realizing it, a blush began to form on Rei’s face. It was rare for her to be ‘included’ in this situations. It had been a while since she met anyone who wanted to spend time with her like this. This made her happy. After letting the invitation sink into her head, Rei cheerfully smiled and answered, “Sure.”

As Rei walked away with Yukari, Fuuka, and Minako, Junpei was thinking, “Damn! My dreams have been shattered today!” He immaturely half-shouted, “Well I’ll just have my own fun then!” As Junpei was saying this he thought, “Ryoji said he would be coming here, so I’m going to see if he’s arrived yet.” Junpei then walked away to the opposite side of the festival in a stride hoping to look cool.

Rei and the others laughed at Junpei’s little banter as they made their own way. Before they were out of earshot, Akihiko decided to speak up and said, “Hey wait! Can I ask you something Narukami-san?”

“Sure go ahead.” Rei was a little surprised that Akihiko said anything since from her perspective he was one of the least talkative in the group. At the very least, he did not talk to her directly that much in comparison to the other students in their group.

He nervously asked, “Have you ever … Have you ever seen anything strange in this city?” Akihiko sounded like he was forcing himself to ask this question. The other members of the group did not seem pleased that he asked this question either.

Rei was suspicious when he asked this. “What does he mean by that? How can there not be anything unusual happening in a city like this? What exactly is his definition of ‘strange’ anyway?” Rei gave Akihiko a strange look before asking, “Could you be more specific? I’m not really sure what you mean by that.”

Akihiko looked away and replied in a discouraged tone, “Never mind. It’s not important.”

“… Okay.” Rei replied in an awkward tone before turning around and walking with Fuuka, Minako and Yukari.

///

While Rei was busy having fun with Fuuka, Minako, and Yukari and Junpei was attempting to have a good time of his own, Aigis, Mitsuru, and Akihiko remained together. Aigis believed it was for the better since the other members of SEES were more interested in enjoying the festival rather than talking.

When she was sure that no one else was listening, Mitsuru asked, “Did you analyze her again?”

Aigis answered, “Yes.”

Mitsuru did not feel like waiting until the rest of the group was together again, so she asked, “What did you determine?”

“I have very little doubt that Rei-san has the potential.” Aigis stated in a matter of fact tone, “After further analysis, it is a hundred percent certain. However, she does seem to be unaware of the Dark Hour, so her powers are currently dormant. I’m uncertain of what could awaken her powers sooner or if we simply need to wait. Unfortunately, this brings me to the conclusion that she will not be of any use to SEES anytime soon.”

“Well we did sort of expect that, so it’s not that big of a disappointment.” Akihiko looked towards where the girls were playing game as he said, “Anyway, with that taken care, we should probably try to enjoy the festival. No need for it to go to waste right?”

Mitsuru had a troubled look on her face as she said, “That’s not the only thing that is bothering me.”

Akihiko asked in a curious tone, “What else is there?”

“When she was talking before, did you notice her say, ‘my parents’ apartment’ rather than ‘my apartment’ or ‘my home’?” Mitsuru had been paying close attention to Rei’s words when she talked to them.

“…” Akihiko thought about what Mitsuru said for a moment.

Aigis responded, “I picked up on that as well. Even though I am unfamiliar with the concept of homes or parents outside of my observations, it is my understanding most teenagers would say ‘my home.’ However, she did not have any hesitation when she said ‘my parents’ apartment.”

“Exactly. It is as if she doesn’t think of their home as being her home.” The more she talked, the more troubled Mitsuru looked.

Despite Akihiko’s earlier uncertainty, even he was having trouble coming up with excuses. “I’ll admit that does sound odd. Unfortunately, despite what you’re talking about, you still lack any kind of evidence to prove what kind of home she lives in. What could we do about that? I doubt asking her pointblank would be a good idea.”

Mitsuru: “I’m not sure. Based on her mannerisms, it is possible she might actually give us an answer if we ask her. She does seem to have a habit of being brutally honest.”

Akihiko nodded, “That’s true.”

Aigis told them, “While I was doing the analysis, I did notice that Rei-san appears to have been inflicted with over a hundred percent more body damage than we previously saw her at the temple.”

“What?” Akihiko was surprised by this. “Are you kidding me?”

“Are you sure about that?” When Mitsuru was asking this question, she was asking it in more of a tone wanting confirmation.

Aigis did not hesitate to answer, “Affirmative. When she was walking her, I noticed that she winced in pain and walked in a limp momentarily. She seems to be injured in multiple places besides where Junpei accidentally hurt her yesterday.”

Akihiko asked with a concerned voice, “How did she get injured? Did your analysis tell you why?’

Aigis responded, “Due to my observations, the most likely answer is that she was in a fight.”

Mitsuru asked, “How do you know that?”

Aigis clarified, “This is closer to speculation rather than a definitive answer, but I noticed that her knuckles appeared a little raw. They were not injured, but it would appear they hit against something recently. The most likely scenario is that she was in a fight between the time we met her yesterday and now.”

Mitsuru put her hand to her chin as she asked, “So it was not some form of household abuse?”

Aigis shook her head as she responded, “That is a low probability. The injuries I noticed on her body were more consistent with injuries inflicted upon a fight rather than the result of the textbook definition for an abusive household.”

Akihiko was not sure if he should be worried or disgusted as he said, “Still. That makes me wonder what kind of life she lives. Nothing seemed wrong when she was talking to us before.”

Mitsuru looked in the direction Rei and their friends went as she speculated, “Something tells me that she is good at masking her troubles.”

///

As Aigis, Akihiko, and Mitsuru were conversing, Rei was busy having fun at the festival with Fuuka, Minako, and Yukari. Rei found out for herself that spending time with other people at this festival was more fun. It allowed her to actually talk to someone else who was not in charge of a booth.

While Minako and Fuuka were waiting online to buy some food, Yukari asked her remaining companion, “So did you want to do anything in particular Rei-san?”

Rei smiled as she told her, “I’d like to try playing some of the festival games. I always liked playing them.”

Yukari laughed, “Of course you would like to play a game.” Yukari looked around and noticed one game that looked interesting. She pointed to the nearby stand and asked the girl, “Why don’t we try catching a goldfish?”

Rei sheepishly admitted, “I guess I’d play that, but I’ve never caught a goldfish before. I don’t think I would be good at it.”

Yukari tried to encourage Rei by telling her, “Well we aren’t good at everything. Sometimes we all need a little help.”

“…” Rei refused to comment on what Yukari said.

Yukari then thought about Mitsuru’s speculations from last night and decided to ask Rei, “Anyway, did your parents ever play these games with you?”

“My parents work a lot.” Rei tried not to show any emotion to her response hoping that Yukari would drop the topic.

Yukari replied, “Oh. I see.”

“It’s okay. I’m fine with that.” Rei averted her eyes from Yukari’s before telling her, “It’s just normal for us.”

Yukari admitted to Rei, “My mom’s like that too. We’ve had a few difficulties over these past few years, but I think we might have a chance of turning it around.” She tried to sound hopeful to the younger girl, but Rei was still having trouble meeting her gaze.

Seeing that the younger girl did not, Yukari took Rei’s hand which startled her. Yukari tried to cheerfully tell the girl, “Come on. The goldfish await.” She tried walking to the stand dragging Rei by the hand in tow.

Rei could not help but smile as she responded, “Okay.”

///

A few minutes later, Rei and Yukari were attempting to catch some fish. Rei was trying to scope the fish out, and Yukari decided to act as her coach. Rei was reluctant to agree to this arrangement, but she accepted it nonetheless.

Yukari kneeled next to Rei as she instructed the younger girl, “Be patient.” Yukari kept her eyes at the pool of goldfish below them as she encouraged the girl, “Wait for the right moment then strike. You’ll get a goldfish in no time.”

Rei nodded as she watched the water with her blue eyes. She silently observed the first and flickered at every movement the goldfish made. She held two scoops in her hand and one of them was used for scooping the first into the small net. After waiting for a few moments, Rei believed she saw the opportunity she was waiting for.

She shifted slightly and her hands were over a particularly big goldfish. She patiently waited for a few seconds. When it did not move much, she knew this was her chance. She quickly scooped the goldfish into the net. She looked towards Yukari grinning with pride over her victory.

Yukari happily praised the younger girl. “That was great! You were great Rei-san!”

As the main in charge of the stand was putting the goldfish into a bag filled with water, Rei could not help but blush in embarrassment at Yukari’s praise. Rei was not used to hearing this from people besides teachers and some of the parents from her old friends. She happily thought, “We’ve only played one game so far, but this is a lot of fun.”

The man gave Rei her well-earned fish. Rei stood up and looked at the goldfish swimming in the bag and smiled slightly. She told herself, “I’ll have to get him a proper fish bowl and food tomorrow.”

Yukari patted Rei on the shoulder, and graciously told her, “We should get back to Minako and Fuuka, and we should celebrate your little victory with something to eat. It’s my treat.”

Rei replied, “Okay.” As she followed Yukari to her friends, Rei thought, “Its been a while since I’ve been like this. I wonder if this is what it feels like to have friends again … or if this is what it would be like if I had a big sister?”

Yukari turned back to see Rei was falling behind, so she pulled on Rei’s Kimono sleeve and told her, “Come on. We still have lots to do before the festival ends.”

Rei nodded with a small smile gracing her lips. She said, “Yeah. Let’s go get some Takoyaki.”

Yukari returned the smile and happily replied, “Can do.”

///

After spending several fun filled hours with this group of high school students, it was unfortunately time for them to part ways. As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. Outside of the festival, Rei would say farewell to the SEES.

Rei graciously told them, “I had a lot of fun tonight. Thank you for asking me to come with you. I really appreciate it.”

Yukari responded, “We were happy to have you along.”

Minako added, “Yeah. We all had a really great time with you.”

Fuuka said her own piece as well, “Congratulations on winning the fish.”

Rei looked back at the goldfish that was in the bag she was carrying. She told them, “I hope the rest of your trip goes well, and you get back to your school safely. See you around.”

As Rei turned around to leave, she heard the girl named Aigis ask her, “Rei-san. Before you leave, do you mind if I ask you something?”

Rei looked back at the blond girl. “Sure. You can ask me something. What is it?”

Aigis inquired, “Is there anything you need help with?” The other members of SEES should have seen that question coming given Aigis’ usual behavior. None of them were pleased to hear her ask that.

Rei was bewildered by this question. “What?”

Aigis asked again, “I asked you if there is a matter that you need help with.”

Rei was no certain she did not mishear the girl. Instead of answering the question, she asked in a suspicious voice, “Why would you ask me something like that?”

Aigis answered, “You have injuries hidden underneath your clothing do you not?”

“What?” Rei was astonished to hear Aigis say that, but she tried to deny it. “What … What are you talking about?”

Aigis replied, “It is easy to tell that you’ve had some difficulty moving around like you were in pain, specifically in the stomach region. Between that and the rawness of your knuckles, it is easy to tell that you were in a fight recently.”

Some of the other members of SEES, specifically Yukari and Minako, were surprised to hear this. This was the first they knew about this, but it did explain some of Rei’s movements. However, they also did not like the idea of Aigis openly questioning Rei like this. She was putting the girl on the spot, and she was clearly uncomfortable with this.

Seeing that these questions were putting a lot of pressure on Rei, Yukari tried to end this ‘interrogation.’ Yukari tried to tell Aigis, “I think that’s enough …”

Unfortunately, Yukari’s attempt to defuse the situation was cut off by Rei declaring, “So what if I was in a fight? I ran into these bullies that tried to hurt me, so I defended myself.” Her voice cracked a little as she lied to them. “I fought in self-defense.” There was something in Rei’s voice that made it clear to Aigis and some of the other SEES that there was more to this than Rei was telling them.

While the others seemed to have a reaction to Rei’s activities, Aigis had no reaction and asked, “That is not the whole truth is it Rei-san?”

“…” Rei gritted her teeth as she refused to respond.

Mitsuru decided to say something as well, “It would be fine if the only thing you did do was fight in self-defense, but that is not the only problem is there Narukami-san?”

Rei was dumbfounded that these people who seemingly came out of nowhere are suddenly acting like they know her better than she does. Rei attempted to turn it around by making a demand an answer of her own, “Just who do you people think you are asking me questions like this? I don’t know you, and you don’t know me! Quit acting like you do!”

There was no denying that Rei had a point. However, Mitsuru decided that they could not stop at this point. She reluctantly admitted, “You’re right. We don’t know you.”

Rei angrily replied, “That’s right.”

Mitsuru was unfazed by Rei’s comment as she continued her point, “However, we can tell that something isn’t right. We might be able to help you if you ask.”

Rei was about to say something, but she hesitated for a moment. During that moment, Rei was considering what this person was telling her. Rei thought, “Should I really say anything? Should I trust these people? I just met them yesterday? How do I know they are actually trustworthy? They acted nice to me, but how do I know it isn’t an act? Why should I believe them?” 

After coming to the conclusion she should not try trusting these strangers, Rei tried to lie again, “No! There is nothing else going on! Sorry to disappoint you, but there is nothing special going on with me!” Rei’s voice was sounding more desperate with each word she spoke.

Mitsuru was not convinced and neither were other members of the SEES. “You should not try denying something is wrong Narukami-san. Earlier you said, you didn’t want to stay at your ‘parents’ apartment rather than ‘your home.’”

When Mitsuru said that, Rei realized she accidentally let it slip earlier. Normally, she tries to avoid saying things like that. However, she tried her best to maintain her composure which was breaking. The anger and desperation in Rei’s face was becoming more evident.

Minako muttered, “Mitsuru-senpai …” Unfortunately, she could see that there was nothing she could do to stop this.

Rei angrily replied, “So what if I said that? They did pay for it.”

The more Rei tried to create her weak denials, the more Mitsuru was convinced she was right as she stated, “Despite that, it is a bit odd for anyone to say something along those lines.”

Rei began to back away as she kept denying it, “That still doesn’t mean anything. What proof do you have that there is anything wrong?”

Mitsuru sighed as she told the younger girl, “No. I don’t have any proof, but your actions seem to indicate things are not okay. Aigis and I both know you are hiding something. We can help you if you want. All you need to do is ask.”

Rei averted her eyes to avoid looking at the girl. She felt that if she looked at the girl any longer that she would break into tears. She refused to let these people see her cry.

Seeing that Rei was clearly becoming angrier and sadder, Yukari nervously muttered, “Mitsuru I think this is going too …”

“Stop telling me to ‘ask for help.’” Rei looked back at the group as she told them, “You just want me to ask for help! You want me to be a position to ask for help!”

Mitsuru and the members of SEES were surprised that Rei said that to them. Mitsuru then countered, “Why would we want you to be in a position like that?”

At this point, Rei was not thinking clearly of what she was saying. “You just want to be superior to someone, and to do that, you need to someone to look down on!” She accused them, “I bet that’s the only reason why you wanted to spend time with me!”

Yukari’s eyes opened wide when she heard Rei say that. She tried to stop this from going any further, “Wait a minute! That’s not what any of us would ….”

Rei cut Yukari off, “You know what?!? I’m sick of you guys looking down on me!” Rei looked at the group of High School students before her. From where she was standing, they all looked like they were giving her eyes of pity. If there was anything she hated more than being pitied on by other people. She angrily snapped at them as she declared, “I don’t need your help or your pity! I don’t need anyone else’s help! I’ve always been fine doing things myself!”

As soon as she said that, she turned away from them and began running as fast as she could while wearing a Kimino. What seemed like a great night quickly crashed and burned due to someone asking her a question.

///

While Rei was running away from the group, Yukari tried to call out to her again, “Rei wait!” Unfortunately, Rei either could not hear her or refused to listen. Yukari angrily looked back at Mitsuru and Aigis as she said, “What the hell is wrong with you two?” She tried to call back to the girl running away, “Rei wait! They didn’t …”

Mitsuru ordered her underclassman, “Let her go Yukari!”

Yukari angrily looked back at her senpai and told her, “What the hell is wrong with you and Aigis? We were having a great time and you just had to say something! What the hell were you thinking?”

Mitsuru sighed. “Originally, I wasn’t sure if I should say anything or not. After Aigis decided to say something, I decided I might as well say something. I thought it might convince her to be straightforward. Obviously, it was a mistake not to make a firm decision on this sooner.” She looked down as she mused, “I’ve made a few too many of them recently.” When Mitsuru said that, it was difficult for anyone to make any comments against her.

Aigis seemed to have a slight sense of regret despite her robotic voice as she said, “I do apologize. I should probably have thought this through a little more. The results were far less than I had initially hoped.”

Mitsuru stated, “Well I do think this confirms what I thought earlier.”

Junpei asked, “You mean you thought she was getting into fights?”

Mitsuru stated, “Yes, but I also have a feeling she has a lot more problems than she is letting on.”

Fuuka was concerned about this. “Is there anything we can do to help her?”

Mitsuru stated, “I’m afraid we are not really in a position to do anything to help her considering what happened recently.”

Yukari asked, “If you knew that, then why did this have to happen. You should have told Aigis to wait or something.”

Mitsuru replied, “Well if she would have been willing to accept help, I might have been able to do something more, but that’s not the case. After all, without any testimony from here, we do lack any direct evidence. All we are left with are clues and speculations that could be easily covered up.”

Akihiko agreed, “Yeah. I’m not really sure we can really do anything. Unless you were able to pull some strings or something.”

Mitsuru shook her head, “Not at this time. With my father’s death, I will probably inherit his position, but it won’t happen right away. Even I do take over for the Kirjiro Group, I’m still far from being in the most ideal position to do whatever I want with the resources. Most of the resources we can spare need to be used to helping us try and put an end to the dark hour.”

Minako asked, “Are you sure there nothing we can do about Narukami-chan? She seems like a good person.”

As much as Mitsuru hated to say this, she told the group. “The only thing we can do take care of our own problems right now. We might be able to do something for her later, but now is not the time. Our priority is to get back to investigating the Dark Hour.” It was bittersweet for the group to hear Mitsuru say this since it showed that Mitsuru still had some hope that their efforts to end the Dark Hour could continue.

Aigis replied, “I concur with Misturu-san. We have higher priorities to deal with at this present time. We should not let ourselves get distracted.”

Yukari seemed offended by this, “I hope you aren’t referring to her as being a distraction.”

Minako spoke up for Aigis, “I don’t think that is what Aigis-san mean Yukari.”

Yukari was clearly pissed when she said, “Well it sounded like she was saying that to me.”

Aigis replied in her normal robotic voice, “I apologize. Unfortunately, Rei-san is not a priority for us at this moment. While her life is most likely far from ideal, we do have other matters to deal with.”

Yukari looked down as she finally agreed, “Okay. Fine, but this matter is not closed.”

Minako told her friend, “It’s not.”

///

Date: Thursday, November 19th, 2009  
Location: Kyoto – Outside Narukami Residence

As Rei continued to make her way towards the Narukami’s apartment. Rei repeated to herself in a desperate voice, “I don’t need their help. I don’t need their help. I don’t need their help.”

After she had done that enough, Rei tried to reassure herself, “Of course I don’t need their help. I’ve been doing fine on my own. I don’t need anyone else’s help.”

Rei then looked at the goldfish bag that was in her hand. The memories she shared with that group, especially Yukari, earlier today came rushing to Rei. She seemed to have a look of regret to how she ended their time together. She thought, “I wonder if I will ever meet them again.” After considering the likelihood of that happening, Rei thought, “Probably not. They probably wouldn’t want to bother with someone like me anyway.”

When Rei finally arrived at the Narukami residence, she opened the door to the apartment and said out loud, “I’m back.” Once again, Rei found herself in a dark, empty apartment with no signs of life. Rei sighed as she said, “That’s not a surprise. I really shouldn’t bother thinking things will be different.” Rei scratched the back of her head as she said, “Well I guess I should just get some homework done.”

///

Date: December 2009  
Location: Outskirts of Inaba – Shirogane Household

After spending years being her grandfather’s apprentice, Shirogane Naoto was ready to start doing some fieldwork. She and her grandfather, Shirogane Kenshin, would be handling the same case as a team. He would let her try to figure out the case while providing her with support. Naoto was excited to be going out on the field, but she was nervous. She was not sure if she was going to do the right thing or not.

 

As her grandfather waited outside her door waiting for her to finish preparing he said to her in a loud voice so she could hear through the door, “You’re still only fourteen years old Naoto. Are you sure that you’re ready to handle your first case?” 

In his voice, a faint sense of concern could be felt in it. While he was happy that Naoto wished to become a detective as well, he was also worried that she might not be ready for this line of work. After all, being a detective is not exactly a risk free occupation. There could be times that this line of work could be dangerous. He made it clear to his granddaughter that she could face dangerous situations as a detective, but it did not seem to deter her.

Naoto replied though the door by raising her voice, so her grandfather could hear her. “I’m not going to be handling it alone. You’re going to be helping me with it right?”

“That is true, but I can understand if you are not ready for it yet.” Kenshin’s voice indicated he was having second thoughts about bringing his granddaughter out into the field with him.

Naoto protested, “You were about my age when you took on your first case grandfather.”

“That’s also true but …” Kenshin was hesitant to finish this sentence.

Naoto bluntly asked, “Do you think people won’t take me seriously because I’m a girl?”

Even though they were separated by a door, Kenshin instinctively took a step back. While Kenshin had a feeling his granddaughter might ask a question like that, he was still unprepared with how to answer it. He tried to reassure his granddaughter, “I didn’t mean it like that. Don’t misunderstand me Naoto. You have great intelligence and your abilities have a lot of potential. However, as you know …” His voice began to trail off in discomfort before he finished what he was trying to say, “As you know, this is a field that is dominated by men. I just wanted you to make sure that you know that.”

Naoto did not seem offended by her grandfather’s words. In fact, she seemed to understand it perfectly. “Don’t worry. I understand. Being your apprentice all these years has caused me to realize that this would be something that I would have difficulty getting into. However, I’ve made up my mind. I’m going to be a detective.”

“You definitely seem to have the will and temperament for it. That’s important.” A sense of pride could be heard in Kenshin’s voice as he said these words.

“I appreciate that, but it is also important that people take me seriously, so I can get the job done.” As Naoto was finished dressing, she told her grandfather, “I’ve already taken some measure to help me with that.”

This was something his granddaughter had not mentioned to him before. “Measures? What kind of measures?”

Naoto emerged from her room and her grandfather was surprised by her attire. The shirt and pants she was wearing gave Naoto a masculine appearance. Kenshin asked in a bewildered voice, “You’re going to wear that?”

“Yes.” Naoto attempted to deepen her voice as she told her grandfather, “If I wear clothing like this and deepen my voice, I might be able to pass off as a man for the time being.” The voice she was using seemed good enough to cause some people to mistaken her gender.

While her grandfather could understand where she was going with this, he was a little concerned. He asked her, “I hope you don’t plan on wearing that all the time.”

Naoto made herself clear as she stated, “My intention is to keep wearing until I’ve managed to establish myself as a detective. If I do that, everyone should know what I’m capable of regardless of my gender.”

When Kenshin heard his granddaughter say that, he was a bit hesitant to support her decision, but he ultimately decided to go along with it since this was only meant to be a temporary plan. “Um … It is a possible tactic. This might work.”

“It will work. I know it will.” The sound of Naoto’s voice indicated she was confident that her plan would succeed.

Kenshin tried to put his discomfort to the side as he replied, “It is good to see you have the confidence to be a detective as well.”

Naoto smiled as he stated, “I learned it from you grandfather. Anyway, I’m ready, so let’s get going.”

“Okay then.” The two of them left the Shirogane household to handle Naoto’s first case.

///

Date: January 2010  
Location: Hanamura Residence

There was a lavish dinner that covered the dinner table of the Hanamura home. There was more food than anyone could ever eat because they pulled all the stops to have all their favorite meals available to eat. Tonight was a night for celebration for this family. Hanamura Shouta had received a major promotion, and he was chosen to become the manager of the new Junes store that was currently under construction in the town of Inaba.

His son, Hanamura Yosuke, was less than enthusiastic about the upcoming move. He did not like the idea of leaving behind the city and moving to the countryside. However, he tried his best to be happy for his father. 

 

“So, how long before we have to move?” Yosuke asked, looking at the different pieces of Sashimi. He smiled and settled on a Salmon piece, scooping it onto his plate. His middle school jacket lay discarded on the chair behind him, and his shirt was loosely hanging from his pants, rumpled and creased.

“Well, I know I have the position now, but the store is still in the middle of construction. According to the current estimates, we will probably move to Inaba in about six months or so.” Shouta told him.

“I see.” Yosuke tried not to sound glum, but he could not prevent that from eking out. However, neither of his parents seemed to notice this reaction.

Shouta glanced at his wife, Hanamura Mei, his wife. She smiled lovingly at him and turned to their daughter, Koharu. Mei asked her daughter, “Isn’t this exciting Koharu-chan? Your daddy got a special manager job.”

As Koharu was poking at her sushi with a chopstick she asked, “Are we moving?”

Mei answered, “Yes we are.”

Koharu looked at her parents with her big brown eyes and asked, “What about my friends?”

Shouta replied to his daughter was a kind smile, “You can still write to them and call them on the phone kiddo. They won’t disappear forever.”

Koharu responded, “But things do disappear forever.”

Mei asked, “Like what dear?”

“Socks disappear all the time when they go in the dryer.” Koharu pointed out before her parents and older brother started to laugh. She asked with innocent curiosity, “What?”

“Ha! Ha! Ha!” After the laughter died down, Yosuke did the best he could to tell her, “It’s nothing. You don’t have to worry about it funny bunny.” He reached over and ruffled his sister’s hair to her chagrin.

Koharu indignantly responded with a huff, “Don’t call me funny bunny!”

Yosuke said, “That can’t be helped.”

Mei was amused by the interactions between her two children. After things quieted down, she told them both, “I understand that moving will probably be difficult for the both of you, but I’m sure you’ll be able to handle it when the time comes.” She looked hopeful at the both of them as she asked, “Right?”

Koharu reluctantly responded, “Okay mom.”

Yosuke tried to be supportive as he said, “I understand. However, if you don’t mind me asking, what kind of place is Inaba anyway. I’ve never even heard of this place until just now.”

As he was spreading wasabi on a piece of sushi Shouta answered, “It’s a small town, but there is a city nearby. I think it is called Okina which you can get to with a quick train ride, so you won’t be too bored.”

Yosuke asked incredulously, “Are you saying Inaba is a place with farms and that kind of stuff?”

Shouta looked amused as he told his son, “Well when we get to Inaba, there will be a Junes for me to manage, so there will be more than ‘farms and stuff.’” He laughed to himself over his son’s behavior as he shook his head.

Yosuke tried to smile, but it came out more of a grimace. “Well, okay dad …” When Yosuke responded, he tried to sound more optimistic, but Yosuke’s lack of enthusiasm was noticeable. He sighed as he went back to picking up his food with his chopsticks, “So we’re moving to some hick town in the middle of nowhere … great. I bet it will be the most boring place I’ve ever been … Why don’t my dad just get a city job. At least I’ll be somewhere that I’ll have something to do.”

///

Date: February 2010  
Location: Kyoto

Outside of her ‘physical activities’ of attacking bullies she ran across, Rei excelled at school. She always gave it her all to make sure she was prepared for her tests and completed her work. It was rather desirable for some people to want to work with her. While the school projects usually went well, Rei had difficulty being able to socialize with the students she worked with after they were done.

It was not too long until it would be time for her middle school graduation. Rei was calling one of the people who she worked on a school project Rei called out, “Hey. I was wondering if we could get together during the Spring Break. It would be great to …”

Before Rei could say anything else, she was interrupted. Rei’s face sunk when she heard a less than favorable answer on the other end of the phone. She sadly replied, “Oh really. I’m sorry to hear that. Okay then.”

After Rei hung up the phone she said to herself, “It is always the same. After we are finished with our school project, they all bail on me like I’m nothing.” She sighed as she tried to understand what was wrong.

Rei grabbed some of her hair and held it out in front of her as she said, “My hair can’t be the only reason for this can it? It hasn’t really given me any trouble since I finished Elementary school. What else am I doing wrong?”

She looked out her window and watched the snow fall to the ground. Rei thought, “Might as well not let this day go to waste. Maybe I should see if I can build a snowman.”

///

Date: March 2010  
Location: Inaba – Amagi Inn

It was spring break and there were plenty of tourists entering the small town of Inaba, and the Amagi Inn was filled with reservations. One of the people working at the Inn was a young girl with long raven hair named Amagi Yukiko. She was the daughter of the Inn’s owner, and she was the heiress to the family business. In recent years, her mother began grooming her to become her successor. 

Yukiko personally had some mixed feelings about becoming her mother’s successor. On one hand, she did like the inn and the people who worked there. On the other hand, she was not sure if becoming the owner of the business rather than trying to do something on her own was something she wanted. Additionally, there was something else that was distracting Yukiko that was making it difficult for her to think clearly about her path. When she was not helping customers, she seemed to be in deep in thought.

On one late afternoon, a young girl with shoulder length hair who was carrying a bag over her left shoulder walked up to Yukiko and cheerfully said, “Hey Yukiko!”

The voice snapped Yukiko out of the little funk she was in as she looked to the source of the voice and saw it belonged to her childhood friend Satonaka Chie. She replied in an exhausted voice, “Oh. Hey Chie. How are you doing?”

Chie was surprised to hear her friend ask that. She asked in disbelief, “Did you forget?”

“Forget what?” Yukiko’s obliviousness was apparent when she asked that.

Chie replied in an annoyed tone, “I’m here for our little sleepover. You completely forgot about it didn’t you?”

These two girls had recently graduated from Middle school and would be starting their first year of high school in April. They decided to celebrate that they would have a sleepover. Even though things were busy at the Amagi Inn, Yukiko’s mother told her daughter that she would not have to worry about this, and she should have fun with her friend, especially after the great grades she ended Middle school with.

Even though Yukiko had been looking forward to this, there was something that was distracting her. It caused her to lose track of time and forget about the promise. It took her a few moments to realize what Chie was talking about. “Oh right! That was today! I completely forget about that! I’m so sorry Chie!” Yukiko was overreacting to her forgetfulness.

Chie had a hard time understanding how her friend could have forgotten about this. They had talked about this a lot over the past few weeks. She asked in a skeptical voice, “How could you forget about this? We just talked about this a few days ago.”

Yukiko tried to make an excuse. “Things have been really busy here lately, and I’ve completely lost track of everything. Time just completely flew by.”

While that did seem to be a believable excuse, Chie felt that there was something off. She tried to inquire further, “Is anything bothering you?”

Yukiko denied that. “No. I’m fine. I’m glad you’re here.”

Chie was suspicious that Yukiko was lying to her. “… Okay.”

Yukiko attempted to distract her friend by asking, “Do you want to check out the hot springs? They’ll be ready soon.” Yukiko knew how much Chie loved taking baths in the Amagi Inn’s hot springs. In fact, everyone loved their hot springs.

The Amagi Inn prided itself in its excellent service and its hot springs. The effort the staff of the Inn put into both paid off. Some customers would go as far to say that staying at the Inn made the trip to Inaba worth it. The Amagi had a high customer satisfaction rate, which allowed the Inn to have a strong level of customer loyalty.

That plan worked because Chie became excited and seemed to forget what they were talking about as she replied, “You bet!”

Yukiko felt relieved that she was able to distract her friend. Even though she wanted to talk to her, she was not sure if she should or if she could. There are some things might be better left off unsaid.

///

Date: March 2010 – Several Days after the Sleepover  
Location: Inaba – Central Shopping District

Something that Yukiko’s mother told her the other day was still on her mind. Her mother told her that since she was entering high school, she had the right to know something. After her mother told her, Yukiko had a hard time being able to concentrate on anything. It was a good thing that her mother had the foresight to tell Yukiko this information after the tests were over. This allowed Yukiko to use the Spring break to get over the revelation.

When Yukiko wanted to talk to Chie about what she learned, she decided to test the waters by talking about something related to the revelation. Unfortunately for Yukiko, Chie said something that Yukiko was not thrilled with. She was not sure what to do after that. As far as she could tell, the only thing she could do was focus on handling errands for the Inn.

One of the errands she had to run brought her to the Konishi Liquor Store in the Central Shopping District. Yukiko was too young to purchase any liquor, but she was able to talk to the people who worked there. Even though they could have called the store, they preferred to speak with people face-to-face. They believed talking to people face-to-face would allow for better business relations.

When Yukiko walked through the door, she was greeted by a young boy who was a year younger than Yukiko. His name was Konishi Naoki, and he happily welcomed her, “Hello Amagi-san!”

Yukiko returned the greeting, “Hello Konishi-kun. Is your father around?”

He replied, “He’s in the back taking care of something. He should be able to help you in a little bit.”

Yukiko said, “Okay then.”

Naoki wanted to avoid any awkward silences, so he asked, “What brings you hear today?”

Yukiko answered, “I was here to take care of some errands for the Inn. My mom asked me to come here to make sure our order is being taken care of and ask him about a few other things.”

Naoki reassured her, “You don’t have to worry about that. My father will be delivering it to your inn himself later today.”

“That’s good.” Yukiko’s voice showcased her disinterest. She was doing the best she could to keep her head straight, but it was becoming more obvious that something was bothering her.

Similar to Chie, Naoki seemed to pick up on this, so he decided to ask, “Are you okay Amagi-san?”

As soon as Naoki said this, Yukiko thought, “I must be making myself too noticeable if all my friends keep asking me that question.” Similar to Chie, Yukiko denied that anything was wrong, “No. I’m fine.”

Naoki asked in a skeptical tone, “Are you sure?”

Yukiko replied in a somewhat annoyed tone, “Yes. I’m fine.”

“Okay.” After a moment of silence, Naoki decided to quickly change the subject, “By the way, what do you think of the new Junes store that is being built?” As soon as he said that he felt like face palming himself as he thought, “Oh man! That might not have been the best thing to bring up. I should have thought of something better.”

Yukiko answered, “I’ve never been to a Junes before. I’ve never left Inaba besides taking trips to Okina City, so I’m not really sure what a Junes is like.” Yukiko seemed curious about what the Junes being built would be like after it is complete.

“I see.” Naoki seemed to be nervous talking about Junes.

It was Yukiko’s turn to notice something was wrong with Naoki. She quickly came to her own conclusion, “Are you worried about the new Junes?”

Naoki admitted, “My father is worried about Junes. He tells me about how they will screw up with all the local businesses here. He told me about how Junes has this reputation of using their cheap prices and great slogans to destroy family businesses in towns like Inaba.” The more he continued talking the more down he felt, “He thinks we will be next, and a lot of businesses here are going to lose a lot of customers because of them. My sister, Saki, agrees with him.”

Yukiko was sympathetic to Naoki’s forthcoming problem as she thought, “I’m definitely not the only one with problems.” She tried to reassure Naoki, “Well you don’t have to worry. The Amagi Inn has been making use of your family’s business for years. I’m sure my mother will continue to make use of your services for years to come.” Naoki seemed to lighten up a little after hearing Yukiko said that. Yukiko topped it off with, “Even if she is tempted to order from Junes, I’ll make sure she buys from your family’s store.”

Naoki chuckled as he said, “At least you’re one customer we can rely on. I’m sure my father will be happy to hear that.”

Yukiko smiled as she said, “I’m sure he would.” The two of them were able to continue talking to each other until Naoki’s father walked back to the front. Before he came back, Yukiko had nearly forgotten why she came to the store in the first place.

///

Date: April 2010  
Location: Inaba – Tatsumi Residence

A boy who was rather tall for his age, Tatsumi Kanji, was kneeing before a mini-shrine that was created to honor his father. Kanji had been praying to his father for a while. It was the day before the new school year, and it would be the beginning of his last year in Middle school. Kanji was not sure how to handle things, and he was hoping that praying to his father would help him.

As he prayed he thought, “Father. I’m trying to do the best I can with following your footstep, but it’s difficult. I know what you said to me before, but it’s still hard. Everyone keeps making fun of me for what I can do.”

Kanji almost expected an answer, but he knew that he would not hear anything. He sighed as he thought, “I wish you were still here. I wish I could have been there for you. Maybe you would have given me some words of wisdom, and we could have parted on better terms. Its …”

Before Kanji could finish his thoughts, he heard some members of the notorious motorcycle gang outside his home. As soon as he heard that, Kanji dropped what he was doing and stood up as he said, “It’s those bastards again huh? I’ll go show them whose boss!” Kanji ran out the door to teach the motorcycle gang another lesson. Unfortunately, none of them seemed capable of ever learning a thing.

///

Date: May 2010  
Location: Outskirts of Inaba – Shirogane Estate – Kenshin’s Office

After working a few cases side-by-side with her grandfather, Naoto decided to make her first attempt to handle her first solo case. While Naoto was no opposed to asking her grandfather, Shirogane Kenshin, for help, she wanted to see what she was capable of on her own. However, much to her grandfather’s concern, Naoto was still wearing male clothing when handling cases. She told him that it made her feel more comfortable wearing those clothes. She also told him she believed wearing those clothes was necessary for her to be a detective. 

While Kenshin was proud that his granddaughter wanted to handle cases on her own, he was concerned about her behavior. While he could understand her reasoning, he was still worried about what this could mean for the long-term. He decided to talk to his friend and secretary Yakushiji about these issues. They were speaking in Kenshin’s private office.

Yakushiji asked in a polite voice, “Aren’t you happy that your granddaughter wants to handle her first solo case sir?”

Kenshin replied, “Don’t get me wrong. I’m thrilled my granddaughter is trying to handle a case on her own. She has my son’s intelligence and will. I know she is going to solve it and become a great detective. I’m proud she is a member of the Shirogane househould.” His voice began to sound a little agitated as he said, “However, I can’t say that I’m pleased by this turn of events.”

“…” Yakushiji remained silent as he let Kenshin continue speaking.

Kenshin’s voice sounded more and more agitated as he stated, “When she is wearing those clothes, it is like she is denying her gender. I feel like she is stating that she hates being a girl. I don’t want her to hate being the gender she was born into. That is the last thing I want.” It was hard to tell if he was angry about Naoto’s actions or something else. “She told me that wearing those clothes would only be temporary, but something tells me it is going to be much longer than that. I’m afraid that she might be unwilling to truly embrace her gender.”

Yakushiji shook his head as he replied, “I don’t think Naoto-sama necessarily hates the gender she was born into.” Yakushiji tried to be as understanding as he could be as he tried to give his reasoning while Kenshin let him continue uninterrupted. “I understand the fact she could technically be considered a ‘cross dresser’ would be troubling for you, but you need to understand that she does have a point. Her career as a detective is only getting started, which does make her vulnerable. You of all people know this.”

Kenshin sighed, “Yes I do.” He was noticeably calmer than he was a few moments earlier. “Every case is important, but the first few are critical in the reputation the detective develops. They can prove that the detective is someone that is capable and trustworthy. If they can prove themselves, then they will be able to continue receiving more cases and enhance their reputation further. It happened to my father. It happened to my son, and it also happened to me.” Kenshin’s tone was bittersweet as he said this, “Now it is Naoto’s turn. She needs to prove herself now.”

“I’m sure Naoto-sama will prove herself.” Yakushiji stated in a bitter tone, “Unfortunately for her, this line of work is dominated by men. You know that she is only wearing those clothes so other people will take her seriously. As intelligent as she is, not everyone is willing to give a female detective a chance.”

Kenshin looked down to the floor in disgust as he replied, “I know. I understand that she is only doing this to be respected. However, if she continues to do this or lets it get to her head, I’m afraid that it might negatively affect her in the long run. Not to mention, some people might criticize her for being dishonest.” Kenshin looked at his old friend and said, “I don’t want her to keep thinking she needs to wear male clothing to become a respected detective.”

Yakushiji was not really sure how to respond. He could see that both Kenshin and Naoto did have a few valid points. The only thing he could do was ask, “What do you propose we do?”

“I’m not really sure.” Kenshin scratched the back of his head and sighed, “I doubt my son would have known either.”

On reflex, Yakushiji asked, “Do you think your son would have allowed Naoto-sama to become a detective?”

“If he was alive to raise her, I’m sure she still would have wanted to become one, and I know he would have been happy.” Kenshin’s voice began to break as he said, “I don’t know if his wife would have been thrilled, but I’m sure she would have come around.”

Yakushiji asked in a concerned voice, “Are you okay Kenshin?”

Kenshin waited a few moments before answering, “I’m fine. It’s just that even after all these years, I still find it difficult to talk about these ‘what if’ scenarios about my son or to talk about him in the past tense. I shouldn’t have to. After all, a parent shouldn’t outlive his child.”

Yakushiji looked down as he replied, “… Yes.”

Kenshin stated, “Anyway, I really shouldn’t keep rambling on about this. I’m not really sure about what the right thing I should do for my granddaughter. I understand why Naoto feels like she needs to wear those clothes to help her build up her reputation, but I also know it won’t help her in the long run.”

Yakushiji seemed to be in deep thought for a few moments before suggesting, “For the time being, perhaps should wait and see how Naoto-sama handles things on her own. Maybe she will become friends with some of her classmates and that could help change her. If this continues too long, maybe we should try doing something then.”

Kenshin reluctantly stated, “I guess you’re right.” Kenshin walked to the nearest window and gazed outside as he rested his arms on the windowsill. “My granddaughter is growing up. I need to give her some freedom. When I was growing up, my father gave me the freedom to make my decisions at around her age. I did the exact same for my son when he was Naoto’s age too. Both he and I were able to make good decisions, but we did receive some help along the way. My father provided some help for me in his own way and I helped my son as best as I could.”

Yakushiji tried to sound encouraging when he told Kenshin, “If it worked before, then I’m sure it can work again. I don’t think you will need to worry about how Naoto-sama will develop as long as you try to guide her.”

Kenshin looked away from the window and directly at Yakushiji as he stated, “I worry about her every day. She’s my granddaughter. It doesn’t matter whether she is taking on a case or doing something else. I’m always going to be worried about her. However, I will do what I can to make sure she is a strong young woman before I die.”

Yakushiji smiled as he said, “I’m sure you will sir. I have no doubts about that. I’ll be there to help as well.”

Kenshin returned the smile as he graciously replied, “Thank you my friend.” Yakushiji nodded in acknowledgement.

///

Date: Tuesday, June 1st, 2010 – Nighttime  
Location: Tokyo

The idol Kujikawa Rise, a.k.a. Risette, was relaxing on in her room after a long day of balancing school and her work as an idol. Unfortunately for Rise, this was also her birthday, so she did not have an opportunity to really enjoy it. While her parents were going to give her a nice big cake, Rise was still not a big fan of how much she had to work today. Working as an idol was tiring work, but these past few weeks have been more so than usual. Rise figured they were probably doing some extra work, so they would be ready to provide new material for the upcoming summer season even while she takes her vacation in August.

Rise put her head down on her desk as she thought, “This is the first time I’ve worked through my birthday. I wonder if this will happen next year too.” She grimaced at the idea as she thought, “I really hope not.”

“I’ve been doing this ‘Teen Idol’ stuff for a while. It’s been great in some ways. People know who I am and don’t consider me a nobody. When I sing, people enjoy hearing my voice. They love seeing me on magazines and television. The job can be a real pain sometimes, but it’s really great having fans.” A sense of pride could be heard in her thoughts.

A few moments later, Rise sighed to herself as she said out loud, “Having fans is great, but I wish I actually had friends. I thought having fans would mean I would have tons of friends, but I can see that is not the case.”

Rise looked at the little box on her desk. She decided to open it and looked at several of the different items that Rise considered to be her ‘treasures.’ One of the treasures in her desk was the origami swan that was given to her by the silver haired girl named, Narukami. It was something the girl quickly made on the spot and gave to Rise as a gift. Even though it was made out of paper, Rise treasured this memento that this girl gave her. It was something she would never think about throwing out. The same thing goes for the hat Rise found that belonged to the girl that she lost during a fight with the bullies.

As Rise stared at this origami swan, Rise thought, “Why do I keep thinking about her? Is this some kind of obsession? It’s been years since I met her, and we only met once.” 

The moment Rise had those thoughts in her head, her mind immediately played back the memories of how she was being picked on by those bullies and how Narukami came out of nowhere and helped her. She put the bullies in their place and retrieved her backpack. Even though she was hurt, the girl tried to make Rise feel better by giving her the origami swan. The girl seemed like she would have been happy to be Rise’s friend, and when she moved so abruptly before they could meet again, Rise remembered how much it hurt her to not say goodbye.

With a small amount of regret, Rise thought, “I guess that seems like a good reason to keep thinking of her. Even though she only met me once, she was the first person in that school he helped me. She was living proof not everyone in that school were like those bullies. If I could have known her better, I wonder what else could have happened.”

Rise continued looking at the origami swan as she whispered to herself, “If you didn’t move away after you helped me and we were able to talk again, I wonder how much things could have changed? Would we have become friends? Would we have kept in contact after you moved? Would you have encouraged me to become an Idol? If we did become friends, would we have remained that way?” The room was silent for a few moments, and it seemed like Rise was expecting an answered. After it remained silent for a while, Rise chuckled as she said, “I guess there are some things I’ll never have an answer to.”

When she was done looking at the memento, Rise put her treasures back into the box, and she decided to look through her calendar. She quickly looked through the pages and looked at the August page. Rise smiled at the markings she made for her time off. It was all set for her to be able to spend time with her grandmother that summer before later going to the beach.

“It is a good thing I don’t make broadcasts for where I go for my vacations. I’d hate to think of what could happen if I did.” Rise chuckled as she tried to lift up her spirits. At least she knew that she had a few things to look forward to two months from then.

Rise heard her mother call out for her, “Rise-chan. Can you come to kitchen please?”

She smiled as she happily told her mother, “I’ll be right there.” She glanced back at the box for a moment before getting up from her desk and heading out of her room.

///

Date: July 2010  
Location: Inaba – Dojima Residence

The first semester of school was coming to an end. A little five year old girl, Dojima Nanako, had just returned home from another day at elementary school, and she opened the door to an empty house. She lived at home with only her father, Dojima Ryotaro, after her mother had been killed in a hit-and-run. However, since Nanako’s father was a police detective with the local law enforcement, he had a tendency to be absent numerous times. Even when he was home, there would be times when he would get called in to handle another matter. In some ways, Nanako’s situation was not too different from Rei’s.

When she heard the phone ring, Nanako’s face brightened up, and ran across the living room to pick it up. She saw the caller ID belonged to her father. As soon as she picked it up, she cheerfully said to her father, ““Hi dad! Are you going to come home soon?”

The voice on the other side of the phone belonged to her father, and she could hear how tired he sounded, “I’m sorry Nanako, but I’m calling to say that I’m not going to be back until late tonight.”

Nanako innocently asked, “When are you going to come home dad?”

Ryotaro replied, “I’m not sure, but you shouldn’t expect me home until after you should be in bed. Our next door neighbor will come by later to check up on you, and I left you some dinner that you can cook in the microwave.”

Nanako was disappointed to hear this as she said, “Okay dad.” She tried to sound as understanding as she could, but it was difficult since she was a child.

With a tired voice, Ryotaro said, “I’ll see you tomorrow Nanako. If you need me, you can call me at my office.”

Nanako tried to sound a little happier as she said, “Okay.”

After Ryotaro hung up the phone, Nanako looked throughout the empty household and saw the TV dinner that Ryotaro left for her. She followed the directions and put it in the microwave for the amount of time the directions indicated.

As Nanako sat by the dinner table with her food, Nanako said, “When mom was here, I didn’t notice how much you were gone. I wish you would be home more.”

Nanako decided to turn on the television since she thought it would be too boring to eat dinner by herself. As she watched, Nanako heard on the television, “Coming soon to Inaba. The mega popular store, Junes.”

The commercial mentioned a number of great things to expect from Junes which caught Nanako’s interest. However, the thing that captured her attention the most was the tagline, “Every day is great at your Junes.”

It was a catchy tune that Nanako liked. It reminded her of how her mother would sing to her at night. When the commercial ended, Nanako sang out, “Every day is great at your Junes.” Nanako laughed to herself at how much fun that was.

///

Date: February 2011  
Location: Kyoto – Narukami Residence

The third semester of Rei’s first year in High School was not too far from being over. In a few weeks she would be starting her spring break and in less than two months it would mark the beginning of her second year. It was nothing for Rei to be excited about. When Rei began High School, she was hoping she would have better luck making friends, but she was mistaken.

As the end of the first year was closing in, Rei received some startling news. She said in a surprised voice, “We’re moving again?!?”

Her father, Narukami Shichiro, replied in an agitated tone, “Listen to what we say the first time Rei. Don’t make us repeat it!”

Rei looked down as she reluctantly replied, “Yes sir.”

Her father stated in a stern voice, “As we were saying, you’re mother and I have received employment overseas in New York City for about a year.”

“New York City? We’re going to be living in the United States?” Rei seemed to be a mixture of excited and nervous at the thought of moving overseas.

Her father was quick to correct Rei’s assumption, “Your mother and I will be living in the United States. You on the other hand will be staying in Japan.”

There was silence for a few moments before Rei asked in a confused tone, “What?” She was having difficulty comprehending the last thing her father said.

“What did I just say about not making us repeat ourselves? You will remain in Japan.” His voice seemed rather irritated that he needed to say that a second time.

“I heard you, but why am I staying here?” She asked in a bewildered tone, “Why aren’t I going with you?”

Rei’s mother, Narukami Katsumi, spoke up, “It’s for convenience purposes. While we are in New York City, you will be living with my younger brother in Inaba.”

Before Rei could say anything, her father told her, “That is our final decision Rei. I suggest you get used to it and get ready to leave after the school year was over.” The sound of his voice made it clear that this was not up for discussion.

It was hard to describe what Rei was feeling. Words could fall short of describing the mixture of anger, betrayal, bewilderment, and confusion she was feeling, “Wait. Don’t I get a say in this?”

Without any hesitation, her mother told Rei, “No. As I’ve just told you Rei, leaving you here will be for convenience purposes. We are unable to bring you with us.”

Rei was not satisfied by that reasoning and wanted to make more sense of what was going on. “What are these ‘convenience purposes’?”

Her father sternly told her, “They are none of your concern.”

Rei protested, “Why aren’t they? They’re the reason you don’t want me to come with you right? I should at least know what they are right?”

Katsumi ordered her daughter in a commanding voice, “Stop being selfish Rei and accept our decision.”

Rei was not about to follow that order as she continued to question, “What’s so selfish about wanting to know why I can’t come with you?”

Shichiro looked in his daughter’s eyes, and he saw she was not going to back down on this, so he told her, “If you want to know the reason, it is because the company will only sponsor your mother and me for this trip.”

After taking a moment to think about the implications of that answer, Rei said, “Wait … Are you telling me that you don’t want to take me with you because the company won’t sponsor me too? Are you …”

Katsumi interrupted her daughter’s question with a sharp toned response, “That does not matter. Regardless of what you say, our decision is final.”

Rei replied in a dry tone, “This sounds less like being ‘unable’ and more like you don’t want to bring me with you.”

“You should watch your attitude young lady. Regardless of the reason, you will remain here in Japan, and that is how it will be.” Rei did not know what else to say until her mother said, “I suggest you take your father’s advice and start getting ready after the first year is over. You will need to have all your things ready, so the movers can transport them to Inaba.”

“…” Rei remained silent.

Her mother was not the type to take silence as an answer, so she pressed Rei further, “Am I understood Rei?”

Rei reluctantly replied, “Fine.”

Her mother seemed satisfied by this as she said, “That’s much better.”

Rei asked, “You said I will be moving in with my uncle. He’s Dojima Ryotaro right?”

Her mother did not see any problem with answering this question, “That’s correct.”

Rei inquired further to make sure she knew the person she would be living with. “He’s the one who has a daughter, Nanako, and his wife was kill last year in a hit and run right?”

“Yes. My brother’s been attempting to find the person who was responsible for his wife’s death ever since, but I doubt he will have any luck with that.” Her voice had a mocking sound, and she did not seem to be concerned about her brother’s condition or family life.

Before Rei could ask anything else, her father told her, “That will be all Rei. Go back to your room and continue studying. Your finals are coming up.”

While Rei knew that her father had a point about needing to be ready for the upcoming finals and make sure she did well. Rei could tell that they really did not want her in that room any longer than she needed to be. They did not even wish her good luck with her studies or anything for that matter. The two of them just went back to reading the newspaper or whatever they were doing before they called Rei in.

///

Even though Rei had been shocked at first, a smile eventually crept up on Rei’s face. She thought about what this could mean for her to live with someone else. She happily thought, “Maybe this could be a new start for me. Living with my uncle and cousin can’t possibly be worse than living here. There might actually be people home to come back to. This could be the ‘normal’ life I’ve wanted.”

This was another situation where words were hard to completely describe Rei’s feelings. However, the best words that could be used were anticipation and excitement. The more Rei continued to think of the new possibilities that awaited her the more excited she became. She knew Inaba was a small suburban town out in the country, but unlike Yosuke she did not mind the idea of leaving the city behind. Instead she thought more on the opportunities it could give her, and things could be better for her.

“Inaba could be a nice peaceful place for me to live. I think I might like living somewhere quiet.” Rei continued to imagine what her life would be like throughout the following year.

Rei even went as far to prevent herself from seeming too happy to be living apart from her parents in the following school year. She was afraid that this might give them the idea to change their plans to have her come with them. As far as she could tell, they never really cared if she was happy or not. The last thing she needed was to erase something that might make her happy. Rei made sure that she had everything in her room backed up, so she would be able to make her journey to Inaba in over a month from now. 

Her parents told her that she would need to take the train for Inaba on April 11th, so she would arrive right before the new school year began. While Rei wanted to suggest leaving a few days earlier, so she could get more used to Inaba before starting school, she decided against it since she doubted her parents would listen. Rei marked the date down on her calendar. From that point on, Rei counted down the days on her calendar until her departure to her new life. The new life that would await her was beyond her imagination.

///

Omake:

Rise: Well that was a relatively depressing ending to the chapter. You are actually happy to leave home away from your parents and live with complete strangers.

Rei: Well they are supposed to be related to me.

Rise: That doesn’t matter. You’ve never met them before right?

Rei: No. My mother mentioned to them to me before, but I’ve never met them.

Rise: All the more reason why it is sad that you are so ready and willing to go live with them. That really emphasizes more of how sad your home life is.

Rei: You mean besides the two scenes that depicted me coming home to an empty house and not really having a problem with it because I’m used to it.

Rise: Pretty much.

Rei: What do you expect? This is a Knowledgeseeker66 story. In one way or another, Knowledgeseeker66 likes making the protagonists miserable or powerless about something. If I’ve learned anything from reading Knowledgeseeker66’s work, you can expect the protagonists to have an extremely hard time in their stories.

Rise: That’s true. I wonder if any of them will ultimately get a happy ending.

Rei: I wonder that myself. However, it is for the better that Knowledgeseeker66 puts them through hell and more.

Rise: Why do you say that?

Rei: If the protagonists are always happy, how is that going to be any fun for the readers to read? Giving the protagonists something to be depressed about or to overcome gives them some character development potential and helps make them interesting. That is one of the reasons why the stories generally build up good followings and why all the stories are long ones.

Rise: You make a good point. However, that brings up a question. Will Knowledgeseeker66 actually finish the stories? There are several Knowledgeseeker66 is writing, and they all seem to be quite a ways from being finished.

Rei: Knowledgeseeker66 is somewhat ‘ambitious.’ Knowledgeseeker66 likes switching between which stories are being written and has every intention of completing all the stories, including the ones that do not get updated for a while. Some stories receive more attention that others because they are higher on Knowledgeseeker66’s priority list. It may take a long time, but it is in the plans to eventually finish them.

Rise: Well that is a good thing to know the author at least wants to complete the stories.

Rei: Anyway, enough talking about that. Is there anything else you want to talk about?

Rise: I do actually. Since Knowledgeseeker66 had the two of us meet as kids, does that mean Knowledgeseeker66 plans on having us meet up sooner than in the game or introduce me into the story sooner?

Rei: That is a good question. It might be possible since Knowledgeseeker66 does like to alter things. However, for the time being, I think we should assume that our meeting in the main story won’t be for a pretty long time. 

Rise: Oh. That’s disappointing. I mean I’m listed as a main character for this story aren’t I.

Rei: You are, but you will be making appearances throughout the story prior to your introduction to the main plot.

Rise: Really?

Rei: Yes. In this chapter, I was established as being a Risette fan, and you received two scenes in this chapter where you spoke to your grandmother and reflected on things. I think we can expect to see you in some commercials and interviews. Not to mention, we might see more scenes that feature your life as being a Teen Idol like we did in this chapter.

Rise: That is true. We never got to see much of my Teen Idol life in the video game outside of the press conference where my canon counterpart announces the hiatus while the anime showcases the last concert for my anime counterpart.

Rei: Exactly. As you might have read in Knowledgeseeker66’s previous stories, it is Knowledgeseeker66’s writing style to change and/or greatly expand upon certain elements in the fanfiction stories. It makes sense that your life as a Teen Idol getting expanded up in this story given the author’s previous history.

Rise: You’re right. We’ve already seen plenty signs of expansion in this story, such as the increased depth in the families of the different main characters besides us. I liked that my grandmother actually received a name in this story.

Rei: You can expect to see plenty more of your grandmother in this story as well. I personally look forward to seeing more of her. Both Knowledgeseeker66 and EnchantedSlytherin like the character and want to expand more on the character.

Rise: This makes me wonder why we didn’t see more of the different family members of the Investigation Team besides the canon male protagonist’s family and seeing a brief cameo of my grandmother? I think it would have been interesting if we actually saw them interact with the main characters rather than only being mentioned.

Rei: That is a good question. At least, that won’t be the case in this story.

Rise: Are there any other changes we can expect in this story too?

Rei: You can expect some of my relationships with some of the Investigation Team members as well as the social links, Nanako-can, and my Uncle Ryotaro to be similar and other cases be extremely different than in canon. However, I won’t spoil any of the differences just yet. You will have to wait until they start happening.

Rise: I guess that is for the better. I wouldn’t want to know everything upfront anyway.

Rei: Well one thing I can tell you is that starting in the next chapter you will see some of the differences to start playing out and they will keep building up from that point onward.

Rise: I will look forward to that.

Rei: (Look toward the audience) We hope you enjoyed reading the new chapter. 

Rise: (Looking at the audience too) We hope that if you have not done so yet that you will decided to favorite/follow the story. There are plenty more chapters planned out for the future. They may take a while to get written, but they will get written.

Rei and Rise: Please share your opinions about the story so far and provide reviews. Knowledgeseeker66 will greatly appreciate receiving your feedback.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author Notes: What did you think of the appearances from the Persona 3 cast? While I guess I might have made Junpei’s negative characteristics more noticeable during his appearance, I think Rei probably would have received a first impression of that type from Junpei. As you know from the hot spring scene, Junpei does keep up some of his less than desirable traits even after the issues involving Chidori since it was partly his fault that event happened in the first place.
> 
> Before you think that I might have conducted a continuity error in terms of Persona 3’s timeline, I know that the hot spring event within the game happened on November 19th, 2009, but one or two of the main characters mentioning going into the hot springs even before that. I decided to have it that they went into the hot springs on more than on occasion since Yukari and Mitsuru apparently went into them a few times. Anyway, you can think that the hot spring event happened a few hours later since Akihiko mentions they went into it at a ‘strange hour’ and they did it to relax after the festival scene.
> 
> The Ebisu-san Matsuri festival is a real event that takes place in Japan during November 18th to November 20th. It really is a festival that is dedicated to Ebisu-san, which is the god of commerce. The possible inaccuracy with this is that it primarily takes place at the Ebisu Shrine in Hiroshima City. However, it is possible that this festival is celebrated in other areas of Japan too. Additionally, it seems like the SEES went to a festival or something that looked like a festival based on their photographs of the trip.
> 
> Rei fights bullies for two reasons. The first is because she hates seeing other people being victimized. This is meant to demonstrate that Rei has an extremely strong sense of justice and will not tolerate bullying. The second reason is due to how her home life completely sucks and this gives her something to take her frustration out on. As I mentioned before, this is more or less meant to give Rei a flaw. While she may be taking her frustrations out on people who deserves it, she is still going overboard with some of her actions.
> 
> While I do have Rei act as a vigilante, she is not actively looking for bullies, but she tries to be observant of her surroundings. She is just very good at running into trouble in her area. As I demonstrated in her confrontation, Rei does not simply let other people see what she looks like. She knows what she is doing is against the law, and the last thing she wants is to be arrested. That is why she likes to carry around that mask and the gloves. That way it will reduce the chances of her being identified. 
> 
> In the video game and anime, they do make it seem like Yu is pretty comfortable with the idea of technically being a vigilante by investigating the case on his own with his friends. While I can understand that under the circumstances, it does not change the fact he seemed okay with technically breaking the law even though he lived with a police officer. I figured it would be an interesting idea to have Rei already have some experience being a vigilante already. Breaking one law and being able to get away with it would almost seem like second nature to her. 
> 
> Another flaw Rei has is her complete obliviousness for love. Due to how poor her parents were at raising her and her lack of a decent social life, Rei does not know much about that topic. She is sort of like Pascal from Tales of Graces F. Both of the characters are extremely smart individuals, they are strong and independent, but they are incapable of realizing when someone likes them.
> 
> However, I think my favorite flaws I gave Rei was her inability to ask people for help and her brutal honesty. I wanted to use this chapter to emphasize these character flaws. As you could see during the events of this chapter, Rei does not like the idea of asking other people for assistance. It does not matter who it is or what it is for. She was reluctant to even accept Yukari’s help with the fish game. Rei is also not afraid to tell other people what she thinks for better or worse. There are times when brutal honesty is good and others when it is less than ideal. Sometimes Rei does not know the proper times.
> 
> I enjoyed giving Rei these character flaws because it prevented her from being ‘perfect.’ Even with these character flaws, she still has a number of good characteristics too. For example, she is intelligent, strong, generally a decent person, and has a soft spot for children. Even though she did lose her composure when Aigis and Mitsuru questioned her, she is able to remain calm, such as when she fought the bullies. The main reason she lost her composure in that other situation was due to them pressing her buttons a few too many times.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed reading the chapter and will leave a review. I would greatly appreciate the feedback.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoyed the pilot chapter to the “Into the Fog” reboot. Similar to my other stories, the trademark omakes make their return. Sometimes they are meant to be funny while other times they are meant to be somewhat more serious when pointing things out. I know some of you like them and others might not, but I personally enjoy writing them most of the time. It is nice being able to break the fourth wall and lampshade things that would not be possible to do in the actual story.
> 
> On another note, I would like to thank EnchantedSlytherin for giving me permission to write this reboot and providing support. While I am the primary planner and writer of this story, his input and messages have been helpful. I look forward to continuing our collaboration for future chapters. I’m sure things will turn out great. 
> 
> Regarding the Yaoi scene that appeared in this chapter, that is the only Yaoi scene I plan on having in this story. In both the game and the anime adaptations, Yosuke is extremely homophobic. I decided to give an explanation for some of Yosuke’s behavior because I plan on maintaining that trait for “Into the Fog.” I hope you did not mind that scene.
> 
> Besides Rei and Rise’s scenes, I enjoyed writing Naoto’s scenes the most in this chapter. In both the video game and anime adaptations, you never meet Naoto’s grandfather, but you do encounter Yakushiji during her social link. You can expect to see quite a bit of Naoto’s relationship with her grandfather in this story. It is one of the many things I plan on changing and expanding in this story. Kenshin is a fun character to write scenes for, and I liked writing Naoto’s interactions with her grandfather. Not to mention, EnchantedSlytherin enjoyed reading these scenes.
> 
> In this story, both Rei and Chie both have taken karate classes, so they have the capacity to fight, but there is a big difference between the two of them. The karate classes Rei took were a free after school club activity. Similar to the karate classes I had Kirita take in “The Kirita Chronicles,” this was a club that simply had matches between fellow members and did not compete with other schools. Chie’s classes were not only paid for, but she would be taught by more instructors, would learn more moves than Rei, and she would fight with more opponents. As a result, Chie would definitely outclass Rei in terms of fighting ability.
> 
> In regards to Rei taking a karate class, I like the idea of having my female lead characters be strong from the start and karate seems like a good source of strength. While I did not actually include any karate class scenes in this chapter, I think you can expect there to be some flashbacks to those moments in the future. Similar to my other story, “The Kirita Chronicles,” I plan on making flashbacks an integral part of “Into the Fog.” The first chapters that take place prior to the start of the main story will give you a taste of what a number of the characters’ lives were like prior to the primary plot and subsequent flashbacks will expand upon what you learned from these chapters.
> 
> On another note, I’m sure some of you might have an issue regarding Rei hitting one of the bullies in the back of the head with a stick even though they were retreating. It was more or less meant to represent one of Rei’s character flaws that resulted due to her childhood. You sort of say that Rei’s frustrations with her life can sometimes reach a boiling point which can cause her to become somewhat violent against someone she thinks are an ‘acceptable targets’ when she thinks she will not suffer any consequences. She saw that there were no teachers around to witness her actions and she followed through.
> 
> While Rei is a frustrated individual, she would not take her frustrations out on someone like Rise or Nanako because they did not deserve it. You probably noticed at least one or two other character flaws besides that one during Rei’s childhood scenes. It is definitely important to have main characters to have notable flaws for not only making it more fun to write the story but to allow the readers to enjoy reading it. Similar to Kirita, I’m looking forward to developing Rei’s character throughout the story. This is going to be a lot of fun.
> 
> Thank you again for reading this story. I hope you will leave a review along with favoriting/following the story, so you can be apprised to future updates. Receiving feedback for my work is greatly appreciated.


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